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THE AUTHOR’S IDEAL HOME LIBRARY. 

























The Book of a Thousand Startling Wonders 

THE COLUMBIA ENCYCLOPEDIA 



By MARSHALL EVERETT 

The Great Descriptive Writer and Historian 


A COMPLETE LIBRARY 

#<#> 

SHOWING THE NEWEST 

O F 


UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE 

WONDERFUL INVENTIONS 

CONDENSED INTO 


AND THE 

ONE VOLUME 


WORLD'S GREAT 

THE CULMINATION 


PROGRESS 

OF CENTURIES 


IN SCIENCE 

OF HUMAN EFFORTS 

J y 

• 

» 

AND COMMERCE 


The Great Industries of the World Photographed and Explained 

Showing the Wonderful Mechanical Methods of this Century 

INCLUDING A COMPLETE INDEX 

--- and —-- 

A VALUABLE LIST OF REVIEW QUES¬ 
TIONS FOR HOME STUDY 

Superbly Illustrated with a Vast Number of Engravings 

MADE FROM PHOTOGRAPHS. EXPLAINING AND BEAUTIFYING THE TEXT. 


Copyright 1907 by F. I. Scheetz 



CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 


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-\Ko Cooles Received 

NOV 6 

GepymrM Entry 

Ttffe** 5 " 

COPY B. 




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PREFACE 


By BISHOP SAMUEL FALLOWS, D.D., LL.D. 


It has been a great pleasure to me to look over very care- 
ally the pages of this deeply interesting volume. It is a book 
nore fascinating than the Arabian Nights Entertainment. 
The wonderful inventions, the marvelous discoveries which 
make the nineteenth and twentieth centuries peerless in all 
he ages, are here strikingly and accurately presented. No 
;ield of modern research has been neglected, and no arena of 
activity overlooked by the Author in gathering facts for this 
unique and comprehensive volume. The questions which 
are continually arising as new and startling revelations are 
being constantly made in the world of nature and the realm of 
icience are luminously answered. Their application to prac- 
ical life is clearly set forth. The reader or student will find 
limself therefore abreast of the times in the possession of the 
widely diversified knov/ledge this cyclopedia unfolds. 

The useful and the beautiful are happily combined in the 
ubjects presented, for the illustrations are superior works of 
rt and vividly portray to the eye the meaning of the text. 

The Index and Review Questions add special interest to 
he book and make it valuable both for the purpose of study 
and recreation. 

I therefore cordially commend it to the twentieth century 
man or woman or boy or girl eager to acquire the greatest 
amount of useful information with the least expenditure of 
time in gaining it. 


SAMUEL FALLOWS 





PREFACE 


O F ALL the books ever made I believe this one contains by far the greatest 
amount of Practical Knowledge ever condensed into one volume. No busy 
man, woman or child can look at a single page without finding something that will 
both interest and instruct. Here are the Wonderful Inventions and Strange Devices 
of Mankind Explained and Photographed so that any one will understand at a 
glance. No field of modern research has been left untouched, no arena of activity 
has been neglected, no portion of the globe has been overlooked or forgotten when 
gathering facts for this, the most concise and yet comprehensive work ever offered to 
the public. 

It sets before the reader in a nutshell all the important and wonderful inven¬ 
tions of all people and all the great discoveries of all nations In the shop, on the 
railroad, in the store, on the farm, in the factory, in the home, in the school, and 
amid the whirl of mighty machinery, questions constantly confront us, all of which 
' are answered in this volume and the answers can readily be found by the com¬ 
plete index. 

I have never seen such a wealth of useful pictures in one volume before—the 
publishers have certainly gone to an unusual large expense in making illustrations. 

The publishers of this magnificent volume have spared no expense to present 
to the intelligent reading public a comprehensive and thoroughly up-to-date ency¬ 
clopaedia of the latest inventions and improvements in the scientific and mechani¬ 
cal world ; the work is primarily intended for busy people who desire facts, yet who 
wish to be spared the labor of long and unsatisfactory researches through libraries, 
museums, and histories. 

In the space allotted to science in this delightful book are described the latest 
marvels: liquid air, the wireless telegraph, the new uses of the X Ray, the advance 
in experiments toward the perfect air ship, telegraphing pictures, and many other 
wonderful feats never before dreamed of. 

There are a large number of very interesting accounts of inventions along the 
mechanical line, many partake of the nature of the scientific. Here the reader learns 
that the dreams of Jules Verne have come true, and that man may now safely travel 
the bottom of the sea. Besides submarine boats, there are here treated such sub¬ 
jects as battleships and modern war engines, moving pictures, great engineering 
feats, automobiles, bridges, canals, monster printing presses, type-setting machines, 
iron and steel mills and foundries and stereotyping processes. 

I believe this volume will be of great practical benefit to all who use it. 


MARSHALL EVERETT. 



INDEX AND REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR 

HOME STUDY 


An Easy Method of “Posting’’ on Any Given Subject 


T HE following series of questions pertaining to the subjects treated in this 
volume is intended as a key to help unlock the great fund of information 
stored within its pages and to impress that information upon the mind. The 
list contains inquiries which point toward every quarter of human research and 
human achievement. It covers the universe, and touches all things which are w r ont 
to attract the attention and engross the minds of readers and thinkers. 

As we stated in the introduction, the book itself is a compendium of knowl¬ 
edge prepared for the twentieth-century man or woman who is too busy to wade 
through dense volumes, in order to obtain facts and figures that are here presented 
in a nutshell. 

In daily business and social intercourse, all persons are at times confronted by 
problems requiring immediate solution. To aid in readily solving them, these ques¬ 
tions are formulated and the responses indicated. They will be found to meet the 
constantly recurring needs of men and women in every vocation, serving as a 
medium of ready reference, not only to the student and the teacher, but to the 
mechanic, the farmer, the artist, the railroader, the clerk, the housekeeper, the 
sportsman, the speculator, the clergyman, the inventor, and all seekers for useful 
knowledge. 

The asking and the answering of these questions will be a benefit to all members 
around the evening fireside, and prove a welcome and unique entertainment at social 
gatherings, where knowledge as well as pleasure is the object in view. 


QUESTIONS ANI) ANSWERS. 

AIRSHIPS. 


Questions Answers 

Page 

Whose airship was recently tested with 

success ? 49 

Who were the main performers at the open¬ 
ing of the Chicago Aero Club?. 79 


Questions Answers 

Page 

Is a flying machine more dangerous than a 

bicycle? .126 

What country is in advance of others in 
aerial navigation? .134 


AUTOMOBILES. 

How is the under side of an automobile in- How can an automobile engine be clean 

spectedl? . 34 while coasting? . 56 

Is the speed of 120 miles an hour possible Where was an amphibious automobile re- 
for an automobile?. 35 cently tested? . 72 


9 











10 


REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR HOME STUDY. 


AUTOMOBILES—Continued. 


Questions Ansivcrs 

Page 

What is to take the place of gasoline in 

motor cars? . 78 

Where are automobiles used to print pa¬ 
pers? .108 

What is the only element to be considered 

in hill climbing with automobiles?.112 

Where was the longest automobile trip ?. .115 
What is the latest invention in horns for 

automobiles? .124 

Who is to take a voyage to the South Pole 

in an automobile? .134 

Of what construction are the automobiles 
for the Egyptian desert? .141 


Questions Answers 

Page 

Will automobiles ever be used in the mail 
service? .151 

How should automobile springs be cared 
for? ...224 

What is the latest accessory for automo¬ 
biles ? 235 

What is the newest style motor for chil¬ 
dren? .'.. 254 

How is an automobile equipped for travel¬ 
ing on railroad tracks? .296 

What is used in London to distribute pa¬ 
pers? .267 


BALLOONS. 


What is the fighting machine of the fu¬ 


ture? . 704 

Has the United States any War Balloons? 70 
What coating is put on the interior of a 
balloon? .137 


What great balloon trip was taken by Al¬ 
fred Leblanc of France? .172 

What is the size and cost of the new bal¬ 
loon ordered by the United States ?.... 183 


BATTLESHIPS. 


What is the cost of the new battleships to 


be built by the United States?. 40 

What is the latest type of United States 

cruisers? . 50 

What was Farragut’s first vessel?. 61 


What will be' the increase of the United 
States Navy? . 86 

What progress has been made by the Eng¬ 
lish Navy? .260 


BRIDGES. 


Where is the largest trolley line bridge 

ever constructed? . 40 

How long is the largest trolley line bridge 
in the world? . 40 


Of what is the largest trolley line bridge 

made ? . 40 

Of what material will the new Baltimore 
bridge be built? . 78 


Where is there a steel canal? 


CANALS. 

.129 Was the building of the Panama canal a 
small undertaking? . 


CONSTRUCTION. 


Where is the most wonderful race-track 

ever built? . 35 

How are wooden poles preserved? . 62 

Where is a great river stopped for city 

use? . 62 

What is the cost of the big Colorado dam? 76 

What is the cost of building a house of 
concrete? . 77 


How can a piano box be used as a good 
brooding house? . 

What is the new thickness for walls?.... 

Would concrete safes be more convenient 
than iron safes? . 

Where is there a church on a giant vol¬ 
cano? . 





































REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR HOME STUDY. 


11 


CONSTRUCTION—Continued. 


Questions Answers 

Page 

Where is the largest concrete arch in the 

world? .130 

Where is there being built a sail-boat with 

a lead keel? .135 

How* is an earthquake house built?.162 

Where is a great steel city being built?.... 174 


Questions Answers 

' Page 

What is one of the newest and most useful 
ways to which concrete has been put?..i9i 
Where was a church built from one tree?. 195 
How was the great dam built to check the 

Colorado river? .245 

How did two blind men build a house?...309 


DISASTERS. 


What was the cause of the great disaster Where was the only typhoon that ever came 
to the “Lutin,” submarine?.294 without warning? .301 


DISCOVERIES. 


Where was a gold cargo recently dis¬ 
covered? .\. 4 2 

Where has a mysterious island been dis¬ 
covered ? 66 

Has coal ever been found in northern 

Africa? . 69 

Where was the most famous pearl dis¬ 
covered ? 9 2 

Where have deposits of meerschaum been 
found recently? . 97 


Can gold be obtained from the Mojave 
desert? .100 

Where has a new coal field been found 
recently? .160 

What great treasures have been restored by 
divers? .182 

When was dynamite discovered? .242 

Will sea salt stop street dust? .284 


ELECTRICITY. 


What is the cost of cooking by elec¬ 
tricity? . 39 

How was a man killed by a fence wire?.. 62 

Are frosted bulbs good lighters? . 69 

What is the latest way of applying the 

electric bath? . 74 

How can blue prints be printed by elec¬ 
tricity ? . 96 

Will trolley lines ever connect Chicago 

and St. Louis? . I0 4 

In what very strange places are electric 
lights? .,.'•.IM 


How should electric lights be placed' in 
a kitchen? . 118 

Where are trolley sleeping cars used?....231 

How are electric fans used in furnaces?. .233 

How are safety trolleys made for railroad 
crossings? .251 

What country gives promise of great elec¬ 
trical undertakings? .276 

How can bananas be ripened by elec¬ 
tricity? .291 


ENGINES. 


What has replaced horses in the logging 
mills? . 75 


How can rust be prevented from the use 
of salt water on the interior of water 
jackets of gas engines? .'. 82 

FIRES AND FIRE EQUIPMENTS. 


What is the latest invention for fighting 

fire ? .• 34 

How is the fire tower managed? . 34 

What is the system of fire departments on 

July 4th? . 

What fire department owns a traveling 
blacksmith shop? ... I0 7 


W T hat fire chief has an automobile of great 


use? ..117 

Where is there an emergency fire car?....314 

How should dynamite be used for check¬ 
ing conflagrations? .315 






































12 


REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR HOME STUDY. 


INDUSTRIES. 


Questions Answers 


Page 

Where are the richest sheep pastures in 

the world? .'. 46 

What is Japan’s latest industry? . 55 

How are matches made?. 57 

How are portable houses used for beet 

raising? . 60 

How are piles cut under water?. 62 

How can jewelry be made at home? .62 

Where was the best wall paper made?.... 64 
How many saw mills has the United 

States? . 66 

How are street sweeping brooms made?.. 85 
Has Chicago any lady boiler makers?.... 86 
How can joints be wiped by an inexperi¬ 
enced man?. 89 

At what time of the year do the divers 

start their hunt for pearls? . 91 

Where is paper cloth manufactured? .111 

Is paper cloth cheaper than cotton cloth ?..iii 


Questions Answers 

Page 

Where and how are serpent cucumbers 

grown? .114 

How are sterling silver sheets made?.115 

What is the enormous increase of the 

cement industry? .142 

Who is to control the output of denatured 

alcohol? .150 

How is paint made? .155 

Is the melting of old tin cans profitable?.. 168 
In England what is the time required for 

an apprentice? ./..222 

How are knock-down barrels put together ?.268 

How is coaling done in mid-ocean?.269 

Where in the United States are marble 

quarries? .275 

How are bells made?.286 

What can women do in carpentry? .288 

Flow are glass bottles made? .290 

Why are gold-beating machines a failure?.322 


INVENTIONS, 


How is a bed in a sleeping car placed to 


reduce the jar? . 36 

What is the latest way of recording the 

depth of the ocean? . 42 

What is the quickest way of tying grain 

sacks ? 47 

What is the latest novelty in window 

blinds? . 51 

What is the latest convenience for Amer¬ 
ican guests in a Paris hotel? . 53 

What is the latest convenience for the 

kitchen ? 54 

How is a vacuum used for concentrating 

ores? . 60 

What great invention has just been made 

by Dr. Marage of Paris? . 81 

What is the latest invention for Atlantic 

City board walks? ....’ . 82 

What is the latest design in kitchen sinks? 84 


What invention would bring a large for¬ 
tune ? . 87 

What kind of scissors are used to kill 

wasps ? . 89 

What is the late invention by Louis Bren¬ 
nan? .. 112 

What is the latest fad in umbrellas? .163 

How can oxygen be made at home in large 

quantities? . igfr 

How long has the old style breeches buoy 

been in use? .203 

What is the latest comfort in operating 

Morris chairs? .205 

What is the new mechanical improvement 

for hotel dining rooms? .256 

Of what are glassless goggles made?.278 

How is a periscape made for theatres?. .285 

How are the new vases made? .289 

How can a diver read under water? .316 


LOCOMOTIVES. 


Where are the heaviest locomotives ever 


built being constructed? . 39 

What road has the best locomotives?.... 39 
What type locomotive has a fire box the 
size of a living room? . 39 


What railroad owns the heaviest passenger 
locomotive? . ,,,,,. 


What is the new type of suburban loco¬ 
motives ? . Qg 

How did a locomotive collide with its own 
boiler? .j^g 

Is the speed testing of locomotives peril¬ 
ous work? . ors 




















































EE VIEW QUESTIONS FOR HOME STUDY. 


13 


LUMBERING. 


Questions Answers 

Page 

Of what use is a catalpa tree? . 37 

Can money be made out of the growth of 
catalpa trees? . 37 


Questions Answers 

Page 

Where are the best logging mills west of 

the Missouri river? . 75 

Is the cutting of Christmas trees wasting 
forests? .289 


MACHINERY 


What is the latest invention in type¬ 
writers? .. 

How can a typewriter write a word with a 


single stroke? .. 34 

How is a magazine wrench operated?. 48 

Where are tilting board pumps used?.48 

How are rough road beds recorded? . 52 

How can the life of spoons be tested?. 68 

Can stamps be bought by machine? . 68 


Can book-keeping be done by machine?.. 74 


What is the latest type of clock?. 84 

Where is the largest dredge in the United 
States ? 88 

How is the new milking machine used ?.. 88 

Where are speed indicators used? .119 

Can corn be picked by machinery?.212 

Where is the largest and heaviest double 
gate valve? .221 


How is oyster fishing done by machinery ?.296 


MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 


What surgeon claims he can restore life ' 
after a person has been in the water six 

hours? . 40 

Do the lungs fill with water when a per¬ 


son is submerged for six hours? . 40 

How can mercury poisoning be prevented? 56 
How much arsenic is used by the United 
States? .161 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


Who is the most daring steeple-jack?. ... 37 
Flow can pearls that have turned yellow be 

made white again? . 44 

Where is the largest cranberry bog in the 

world? .. 44 

Where is a metal shell used for a bell?.. 45 

Where was a large hill removed? . 45 

How long did it take to remove a hill in 

Cleveland? . 45 

What bread is becoming supreme all over 

the world? . 5 1 

What grain is becoming supreme? . 51 

What are the dimensions of the United 

States wheat crop? . 5 1 

What is used for preserving metal?. 52 

Where is there an unique advertisement 

of fish dealers? . 54 

Where is a cold water gun used? . 55 

Does fish soap harm nickel plate?. 66 

Where are trained dogs used as police?... 71 
Where were trained dogs .first used for 

tracking criminals? . 71 

Does the eye ever mistake measures?.... 72 
Where were street cars used as houses?.. 72 


Where is there a post-office in mid-ocean? 73 
How is flying accomplished on the stage?. .' 73 
What kind of skin would be good to use 

for gloves? . 77 

How can gold and silver be cleaned at 

home? . 78 

What is to be used as fuel for fog signals? 83 

How was a young girl recently saved from 

Hell Gate?'. 84 

How can the cracking of glue be pre¬ 
vented ? . 85 

What place in the United States has natural 

hot water heating? . 86 

Of what are pipes made for the transmis¬ 
sion of acids? . 90 

Why should soap suds never fall upon 

eyeglasses? . 90 

How can rust be removed from steel 

utensils ? 96 

Could waves be stopped by compressed 

air? . 98 

How can canteens be used as life preserv¬ 
ers ? 104 

Where is there a mahogany side-walk?... 108 













































14 


REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR HOME STUDY. 


MISCELLANEOUS—Continued 


Questions 


Answers 


Page 

How are patients with nervous troubles 


treated? .109 

Where is Jack London to cruise? .110 

What is the name of Jack London’s small 

boat? . no 

How can paint be removed from clothing ?. 110 
By what means are the streets of Berlin 

sprinkled? .112 

Can broken flowers be made saleable ?.... 113 

What is being used in place of ivory?.116 

How can spontaneous combustion be 

avoided? .117 

Where is the greatest gas well? .119 

Where are flying fish found? .120 

How can fuel be preserved? .121 

What is the weight of the world’s diamond 

production? .122 

What are the international code signals?.. 123 
How many horse power equal one ton of 


ice? .124 

Does bad air rot wood? .132 

What is the water supply of greater Lon¬ 
don? .133 

Will Korea ever become a factor in the 

world’s cotton market? .133 

What is the new boat used for life-saving- 

purposes? .143 

How are alligators raised? .145 

Where is there a travelling house? .146 

Where are there large maple sugar or¬ 
chards ? .149 

Can ashes be burned by mixing with a 

chemical compound? .153 

What is the cost of Niagara Falls? .154 

Where is American gold continually 

buried? .158 

How can the age of an egg be told?.159 

Where is the largest steam whistle in the 

world? .164 

Where was the biggest leather belt in the 
world made? .167 


To what use are farmers putting their 
artesian wells? .169 

Is hydrated lime less expensive than quick 
lime? ...170 


Questions Answers 

Page 

Where is the highest building in the 

world? .175 

What is the holding power of a guy 
anchor? .176 


How was a bank safe opened with a small 


hammer? .176 

What is the strength of the human jaw?.. 184 

What per cent of cotton is raised in the 

United States? .185 

Where is there a wall paper that cost mil¬ 
lions? . 187 

What is the latest method of placing door 

bells? .190 

How can bottles be deodorized? .193 

How is mail delivered to the island of 
Tonga in the Pacific? .198 


What is the most useful foreign language? 205 
Where was there a banquet 011 a chimney 


top? .210 

What is the latest novelty in fire-works?. .220 
What is the average recession of the 

Horseshoe Falls? .223 

How are lives being saved from snake 

bites in India? .224 

How can a man walk on water? .231 

How was climate made to order in Colo¬ 
rado? .234 

What is the newest method of removim 


»g 


tight rings? .254 

What great progress has China made?....264 

What is the weight of a crowd? .270 

How was a stack 165 feet brought down?..271 

What ingenious methods are used in shop¬ 
lifting? . 274 


What are the forty distinct styles of chairs 
embracing the periods from 3000 B. C. to 
1900 A. D.? .280 


How is a life saving vest made? .292 

Should the postal rate be raised? .297 

Where are magazines published for the 
blind? .299 

How* was a steel bar cut with yarn?.301 

What is the new theory of the cause of 
wood warping? .308 


MOTOR CYCLES. 

What is the record trip for motor cycles?. .225 How did a motor cycle ride on a wall? 


297 





















































If) 


REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR HOME STUDY. 

♦ 

PHOTOGRAPHY. 

Questions Answers Questions Answers 

. . A age Page 

lat is the new system of photographing How can photographs be taken without 

the dead? . In - , , 

.. . .plates? .220 

How can lightning be photographed?. ... 136 

How can photographs be transmitted one 

thousand miles? .228 How can the voice be photographed?.234 


POPULAR AMUSEMENTS. 


How can modern mermaids remain under 


water without drowning? . 33 

How are the diving bells used?. 33 

How arc the mermaids protected from the 

cold? . 33 

Of what material are the diving bells 
made? 33 


Where is there a floating theater?. 87 

What is the newest sensational amuse¬ 
ment? . I0 6 

Where will a glass parlor be built under 
the sea? .230 

How is water polo played in boats? .321 


RAILROADS. 


What is the latest style of railway cars in 


England? . 36 

How are railroad tracks moved in Panama? 42 

What instrument is used to call the de¬ 
parture of trains? . 45 

What is the telemagophone? . 45 

How were sheep in New South Wales • 

saved from starvation? . 46 

What is the new age limit of the Penn¬ 
sylvania Railroad? . 58 

To what test are steel flat cars put? . 67 

Can a car be run on one track? .102 

Was a railroad ever lost, strayed or stolen ?.i 17 
Where are car ferries used ? .128 


What is the new way of signalling trains 

of danger? .165 

Where is a road being cut through lava?..i7i 
What is the standard gauge of American 
railroad tracks? .173 

Where is the queerest railroad ever built?.206 

What large number of trees has the Penn¬ 
sylvania railroad planted along its right 


of way? .209 

Has Mexico control of her railroads ?.213 

Are steel ties on railroads dangerous?.. .216 

How arc railroad tracks kept open in 
tropical countries? .263 


REFRIGERATION. 

% 

What is the best temperature for storing Where was an iceberg recently sold? . 97 

fruit? . 85 How was an iceberg hauled to town?.97 


SCHOOLS. 

Where will there be a new school for mine What country leads the world in trade 

rescuing? .118 schools? .263 

How is a railroad school equipped?.137 


STEAMBOATS. 


Where was there a great cargo of oil 


pumped into the sea? . 37 

How was a plow used to loosen a ship’s 

cargo? . 57 

What is the fastest record across the 
ocean ? . 67 


What is the length of the longest vessel 

ever built for fresh water? . 76 

How was the steamer “Northwestern” 

saved from the rocks? . 83 

Can the name of vessels be changed after 
twenty years? . 93 







































1(> 


HE VIEW QUESTIONS FOR HOME STUDY. 


STEAMBOATS—Continued. 


Questions Answers 

Page 

How was the sunken boat “Minnie M.” 

raised? .164 

What is the name of the largest side- 
wheel steamer in the world? .253 


SUBMARIN 

What is the longest time a submarine has 
ever remained under water?.124 


Questions Answers 

Page 

How did two young engineers succeed in 
raising a 12,000 ton steamer? ...258 


l BOATS. 

Have women ever taken trips in a sub¬ 
marine boat? ..180 


TELEGRAPHY. 


How is a cavalry horse used as a telegraph 

wire? . 43 

Can a blind man be an expert telegraph 

operator? . 48 

By what means did a man escape from a 
vault ? . 67 


How can woodpeckers be stopped from 

boring holes in telegraph poles? .135 

How is a motor car used for army tele¬ 
graph construction? .273 

Where is the longest telegraph line in the 
world? .302 


TELEPHONES. 


What is the unique way in which a young 


singer obtained a position? . 76 

What is the longest distance the human 

voice has ever been transmitted? .138 

Where are telephone numbers used instead 
of addresses? .174 


When was the great strength of telephone 
wires tested? .204 

How can privacy be attained on party tele¬ 
phone wires? .241 


TORPEDO BOATS. 

Of what construction is the Burger sub- What is the cost of the Burger subsurface 

surface torpedo boat? . 41 boat? . 41 

What is the speed of the Burger subsur¬ 
face boat? .. 41 What is the latest French torpedo boat?.. Hi 

TRANSPORTATION. 

Where is a mountain climbing sled used?.. 46 Is it feasible to tow great barges of oil 

Of what is a mountain climbing sled made?. 46 across the Atlantic? .114 

Where are horseshoes made of asbestos 

used? . 63 How is a car equipped for invalids? .310 


TUNNELS. 


By what method was a tunnel enlarged in 
Scotland? . 53 

What was the cost of enlarging a tunnel in 
Scotland ? . 53 

Where is there a tunnel built on piles?.... 77 


What is the difficulty in building the 
Brooklyn tunnel under the East river?.. 77 
What is the cost of building a tunnel 

through mountains? .152 

Where is there a tunnel being built above 
ground, which will be lowered when 
completed? .237 





























REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR HOME STUDY. 


17 


VEHICLES. 


Questions Answers 

Page 

What is the latest method of washing 
vehicles? . cr 


Questions Answers 

Page 

Where is the cart actually used before 
the horse? .. ...2?b 


WAR APPLIANCES. 

What navy leads the world? . 82 What was the most terrific discharge ever 

made by eight-inch guns? .305 

To what is special attention given in the How are soldiers identified by finger 
French Navy? . 85 prints? .319 

« 

WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. 

What is the record for wireless teleg- Do motor cars make good wireless sta- 
raphy ? .197 tions? .240 



; 






























































































































































































- 













DIVING BELLS FOR MODERN MERMAIDS 

■ * 

How the Performers are Able to Remain under Water without Drowning 


Spectators who have witnessed the mermaid act have been greatly puzzled to 
understand how the performers were able to remain under water a much longer 
period of time than a person could possibly hold his breath. The London Sketch 
tells how it is done, as follows: The principle is well shown by our combination 
of drawing and photograph. Each mermaid (or, in some cases, each set of two 
or three mermaids) has her own diving-bell. Before the curtain rises the mer¬ 
maids take their stand under the diving bells, which are then lowered into the 
water. When the time comes for a mermaid to rise to the surface she holds her 
breath, ducks under the edge of the bell, rests a foot on the small platform shown 
at the side of the bell, and is raised to the surface bv the attendant in the bell. 



No Illusion, but Live Mermaids and Real Water 


There is a special bell, also, for Father Neptune, his boat, and his 
party, and a small bell from which the comic man of the company catches a live 
dog at the end of his fishing line. The working of the device is easily illustrated. 
Take a glass tumbler and plunge it into the water, with the mouth perpendicu¬ 
larly down. It will be found that very little water will rise in the tumbler; but 
as air is compressible, it could not entirely exclude the water, which by its pres¬ 
sure condenses the air a little. The bells are made of boiler-plate, and have air- 
hose connections, telephone, and electric light. The mermaids are protected from 
cold by rubber under-garments, and their grease-paints are waterproof. Direc¬ 
tions to the performers are given by telephone and by red and green signal lights. 
Many have thought the scene an illusion produced by an arrangement of mirrors; 
this should enlighten them. 


33 

















34 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


TYPEWRITER WRITES WORDS 
AT SINGLE STROKE 


A new typewriter will soon be put on 
the market which will write a complete 
word at one stroke. Twenty-two of the 



The Keyboard 


short words most used in correspond¬ 
ence have been chosen, as indicated on 
the word-keys of the cut of the key¬ 
board. The carriage shifts automatic¬ 
ally by touching the proper key, and 
the platen revolves either forward of 
back in the same manner. 

-♦-- 

AUTO INSPECTION DEVICE 


For purposes of repair or inspection, 
or for display in salesrooms, a French¬ 
man has invented the device illustrated. 
In operation the frame is secured with 
the long end k on the floor. The car is 
run on, made secure, and a fastening 
released which allows the tilting frame 
and the car to tip as shown. The 
wheels run in a trough to allow an un¬ 
obstructed view of the under side of the 
car. 


A NEW FIRE TOWER 


One of the latest inventions for fight¬ 
ing fire is the tower shown in the illus¬ 
trations. The apparatus is mounted up¬ 
on a car which can be used as an auto¬ 
mobile or drawn by horses. Each pair 
of wheels has an independent steering 
device and their own motor, while a 
third motor is used to raise or lower 
the tower. Electricity is supplied by 
storage batteries. 

The tower is built upon the principle 
of the accordion and can also be oper¬ 
ated by hand, if necessary. The plat¬ 
form on top has flying bridges which 
are thrown out on either side to the 
various stories of a burning building. 

A nozzle is pla. ed on the upper plat- 



Life=Saving Tower 

form. It has a flexible connection with 
the ground and if the force from the 
water mains is not sufficient the truck 
has a special pump, operated by a mo¬ 
tor, to raise the pressure as desired. 

The tower makes a very compact 
body when it is collapsed. Outriggers 
on the base prevent any danger from 
top-heaviness when the apparatus is ex¬ 
tended to its full height. 



Handv for Repair*. 































































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


35 


MOST WONDERFUL RACE TRACK EVER BUILT 

Speed of 120 Miles an Hour Possible—1,581 Miles in 1.440 Minutes Already Scored 



; jCstj m 


The Great Race Course at Weybridge Station 


Nothing in the way of a race course 
of ancient or modern times approaches 
the great autodrome of the Brookland, 
Eng., Automobile Facing Club. It is 
built to accommodate a speed of 120 
miles an hour, and already S. F. Edge 
has a record of 1,581 miles in 1,140 
minutes—24 hours—or an average 
speed of about 66 miles an hour. 

This track is 2f miles long, 100 ft. 
wide, and at the curves raised to an 
ovaloid shape 28 ft. high. The entire 
course is covered with concrete 6 in. 
thick, in the making of which 200,000 
tons of sand, gravel and cement were 
mixed. In the building 30 acres of 
forest were removed, a hill 50 ft. high 
and 700 ft. long dug away, and a river 
turned from its course. Seven miles 
of temporary railroad and 6 locomo¬ 
tives were required during the nine 
months of construction which cost 
$750,000. 

Grand stand seats on a hill within 
the inclosure will seat 30,000 people, 
and outside there is standing room for 
nearly a quarter of a million spectators. 
To protect them a double row of hand 


rails, 15 ft. apart, extend around the 
track; between the rails policemen are 
stationed at frequent intervals. Elec¬ 
tric signal boxes with sentries are lo¬ 
cated each 900 ft. No one can cross 
the track; visitors enter over a bridge, 
and automobiles through a subway. 
There are 28 large garages in the 
grounds. 

The most powerful and fastest cars 
will be carried highest at the curves, at 
which moment the occupants will be 
nearly horizontal to the earth; the 
movement of the cars being similar to 
a pea rolled rapidly around in a bowl. 

Commenting on the possibilities of 
the future the Motor Age says edito¬ 
rially: “Modern railroad locomotives 
have been, so far as speed is concerned, 
placed in not better than second place, 
and by the motor car. Imagine one car 
traveling continuously for 24 hours at 
an average speed of 66 miles an hour, 
and this on' a circular track! What 
might be expected of this same mob¬ 
ster were it to be turned loose on such 
a track as is furnished the locomotive ? 
A railroad promoting company has 














36 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


boasted it will carry passengers between 
New York and Chicago in 10 hours 
and has been laughed at for making 
such a wild statement. It is neither 



Courtesy Motor, Loudon 

Taking the Curve 

impossible nor improbable; it will hap¬ 
pen within a very short time. It is 
not likely steam will be the motive 
power—it will be a fight between the 
adherents of electric motors and those 
of internal combustion motors, with 
odds favoring the latter.” 

-♦♦♦-- 

An average of 400 ft., board meas¬ 
ure, of lumber, per capita, is used in 
this country against a European av¬ 
erage of but 60 ft. Moreover, prac¬ 
tically 75% of the cubic contents of a 
tree is lost in logging and in failure to 
adapt board lengths to the peculiarities 
of the tree rather than arbitrary rules 
of the trade. 


ENGLISH FAMILY CAR 


One of the English railroads has put 
in service new special cars for family 
use. These cars are 50 ft. long with 
a private baggage room at one end. 
The interior finish is expensive with 



Like a Home Parlor 


very handsome effects. One compart¬ 
ment has a regulation bedstead, which 
in case of illness can be suspended to 
reduce the jar. 



Lanterns Mark the Course at Night 




















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


37 


DARING WORK OF STEEPLEJACK 


Rides to Work on Wire Rope 200 Ft. in Air 


A Philadelphia plant has a brick stack that was 
until recently topped by a 2-ton metal cap in eight 
sections. It became so corroded that it was necessary 
to remove it. The stack is 13 ft. in diameter at the 
top and flares out. The only way to get to it was by 
passing through a 65-ft. underground flue to the 
interior of the stack, and then scaffolding up. This 
flue was so filled with soot and gases, that John Hass- 
ler and his assistant, who did the work, were twice 
nearly overcome as they carried in lumber for the 
scaffold. 

After the steeplejacks reached the top they rigged 
up a tackle which connected with an iron chimney 
200 ft. high and 75 ft. away. Access was had to the 
iron stack by an outside ladder and it was then an 
easy matter to transfer material and themselves. 


♦ - r ♦- 


THE CATALPA AS A LUMBER TREE 


The catalpa was esteemed very highly by the In¬ 
dians and old settlers of Indiana. The former trav¬ 
eled hundreds of miles to obtain the logs for their 
canoes. They were light, durable, easily worked, and 
did not crack or check with alternate wet and dry 
conditions. 

The settlers used it for various purposes, in fact 
for almost everything, always taking it in preference 
to oak, walnut or ash. Plow-beams, hay frames, lad¬ 
ders, windmills and fences were all made of it. Early 
railroads used it for telegraph poles and it gave 
exceptional satisfaction, so much so, in fact, that the 
natural supply was soon exhausted. Efforts are being 
made to plant extensive forests of catalpa. Here are 
some of the things it does: 

In 20 years grows 40 ft. high and 20 in. thick; in 
50 years, 100 ft. high and 30 in. thick. 

As fence posts it lasts 85 years; as railroad tie has 
lasted 32 years. In 12 years grows 
large enough for a telegraph pole. 

Makes excellent furniture, and book 
paper. An oak takes 12 times as long 
to grow and lasts only half as long in 
ground. 

For a few hundred dollars a young 
man can buy cheap land and plant it 
with catalpa, which will be worth thou¬ 
sands of dollars by the time he is 45 
years old. 



PUMPED CARGO INTO THE SEA 


The crew of a San Francisco tank 
steamer, carrying oil, imbibed too free- 
lv and became inebriated. Thinking 

O 

to pump out the bilge water in the hold, 
they started what they thought were the 
bilge pumps, hut which in reality were 
the ones which emptied the tanks, and 
as a result 5,000 bbl., or about 200,000 
gal., of California oil were wasted. 








38 


encyclopedia 








































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


39 


HEAVIEST LOCOMOTIVE EVER BUILT 


Will Haul a Train of Cars Two Miles Long, on Level Track 


The interest of the locomotive world is at present centered in the three articu¬ 
lated compound locomotives now building at the Schenectady works of the 
American Locomotive Co. for the Erie railroad. These engines will be the 
heaviest and most powerful locomotives ever built and will break all records in 
locomotive construction. They are of the type known as the Mallet compound 
and will have sixteen driving-wheels, arranged in two independent groups of 
eight each. The high-pressure cylinders which are 25 in. in diameter by 28 in. 
stroke drive on the rear group of driving-wheels, and the low-pressure cylinders 
which are 39 in. in diameter by the same stroke drive on the forward group of 
wheels. The four rear pairs of wheels are arranged in frames which are rigidly 
attached to the boiler. The forward four pair of drivers are, however, carried in 
frames which are not rigidly connected to the barrel of the boiler, but which are 
in fact a truck; this truck swivels radially from a center pin located just in 
advance of the high-pressure cylinders. 

The locomotive alone without tender will weigh 205 tons, and will haul on the 
level 320 loaded freight cars, or a train about two miles long. In the accom¬ 
panying photographs are shown the boiler and firebox foundation ring and 
low-pressure cylinders of these immense machines. The boiler is over 43 ft. long 
and the inside diameter of the largest ring is 8 ft. It is provided with 404 tubes 
2J in. in diameter, and 21 ft. long. The water alone in the boiler will weigh 
42,100 lb., and the tubes weigh 23,400 lb. The firebox of this boiler would make 
a good-sized living room, being 104 ft. long and 9J ft. wide inside, and having a 
grate area of 100 sq. ft. The man standing at the right in the illustration of the 
firebox foundation ring is G ft. 3 in. tall, which gives a good idea of the immense 
proportions of the ring itself. 

The first example of this type of locomotive in this country was the Mallet 
compound built by the same company for the B. & O. in 1904. This engine 
astounded the locomotive world at that time by its enormous size, but these engines 
for the Erie railroad will be as much heavier than theirpredecessor as that engine 
was than the largest locomotive of its time. The decided success of the Baltimore 
& Ohio engine, however, has proved the advantages offered by this type for excep¬ 
tional weight and hauling power, and justifies this still greater development of 
the type. 

These engines will be completed about the middle of next month and will be 

watched with interest by the whole railroad world. 

- ♦ ♦ ♦- 

COST OF COOKING BY VARIOUS MEANS 


Tests made by cooking meat for one 
hour gave results for five different 
methods, as shown in the accompanying 


table: 

Electricity, per hour. 4.128 cts. 

Coal, per hour. «>-h7o cts. 

Gas, per hour. 2.000 cts. 

Gasoline, per hour. I'nno + 

Kerosene, per hour. 1.0.)- cts. 

An investigation of the table shows 
that electricity would cost twice as 
much as gas. In most localities, how¬ 


ever, the unit cost of electricity would 
be higher. Also the prices of gasoline 
and kerosene are very low for a good 
many places. It is usually considered 
that cooking by coal is cheaper than by 
gas. _ . 

The advantages of electric cooking 
are that there are no ashes, smoke, or 
soot, very little heat and no danger of 
explosion. 










40 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


NEW METHOD OF REVIVING THE DROWNED 

Surgeon Claims to Resuscitate Bodies which Have Been Six Hours under Water 


If the discovery by Dr. H. K. Whit- 
ford, of Elgin, Ill., proves to be what 
he predicts, hundreds of lives will be 
saved every year. He declares he is 
able to revive human life after it has 
been submerged in water up to six 
hours. 

The theory advanced by Dr. Whit- 
ford, and deemed not an illogical one 
by physicians, is an entirely new one. 
In speaking of his method, he says: 

“It is impossible for a drop of water 
to enter the lungs of a person who en¬ 
ters the water alive. This is in contra¬ 
diction to the time honored belief that 
the lungs of a drowned person are filled 
with water. 

“The water striking the larynx 
causes a spasm which closes the lungs, 
and prevents the entrance of water for 
a period of nine days, until relaxation 


commences. Drowning, so called, is 
merely suspended animation, and not 
death. 

“To restore animation I proceed first 
to thoroughly warm the body chilled by 
long submersion. This is accomplished 
with hot water, in which the subject is 
immersed for 20 minutes or longer. 
Following this, the old and ordinary 
methods of restoration are resorted to.” 

This process, he says, makes possible 
the saving of lives of persons who have 
been submerged for a time—not ex¬ 
ceeding six hours. Dr. Whitford claims 
never to have failed in his method of 
resuscitation, and believes that it will 
be adopted universally. 

There were over 300 deaths from 
drowning in this country from January 
to July 10, and before the snow flies 
this number will be almost doubled. 


-» ♦- 

ELECTRIC RAILWAY BRIDGE 800 FT. LONG 



a? 

• gf 

■ 

: jjh 

.9:1 

#9 
# # 

t* 



Largest Trolley Line Bridge Yet Constructed 


The interurban electric railways are 
not only competing with the big steam 
roads, but are building tracks and 
bridges which formerly were attempted 
only by “railroads.” An instance of 
this is seen in the illustration of the 
largest trolley line bridge yet con¬ 
structed. This trestle crosses a deep 
ravine near Boone, Iowa, and is 165 
ft. high and 800 ft. long. It is also 


unusual, in these days, being made of 
timber. 

Another interesting feature is the 
fuel supply. The power house is built 

over a coal mine. 

-♦ ♦- 

The United States will build two 
battleships, each 3,000 tons heavier 
than any afloat, and to cost $10,000,- 
000 each. 
























ENCYCLOPEDIA 


41 



NEW TORPEDO BOAT 

“Waterclad” Subsurface Craft—Not a Submarine 


A strange new fighting craft, the 
Burger subsurface torpedo boat, was 
tested by the Construction Board of 
the United States Navy. Neither sub¬ 
marine nor surface vessel, it is a com¬ 
bination of both. There are two dis¬ 
tinct hulls connected by a “waist,” 
with the engines, steering gear, tor¬ 
pedoes and torpedo tubes beneath the 
surface, out of sight and out of the 
reach of shot and shell. 

Unlike a submarine, it will be able to 
go to sea alone, to hold a steady vision 
of the enemy, and to maintain a high 
speed—as great as 20 knots an hour. 
Unlike a torpedo boat, it has the qual¬ 
ity of invulnerability, for all the 
“vitals” are nearly 5 ft. under the 
water line. The craft has been called 
a “waterclad.” 

The conning tower is the only vul¬ 
nerable part when the boat is in ac¬ 
tion. It is covered with Krupp armor 
4^ in. thick, which furnishes protec¬ 
tion against small rapid-fire guns. 
This tower is too small to be fiit by 
the big guns except through chance. 

The upper hull, the one that lies on 
the top of the water, is in effect a 
float, and is divided into separate com¬ 
partments filled with cellulose. If a 
shell should go through one of the 
compartments the cellulose would ex¬ 
pand at once and fill the hole, for that 
is the principal characteristic of the 
substance—no sooner does it become 
moist than it begins to swell. 

In the heavily armored conning 
tower are the steering wheel and the 
signals to the engine and torpedo room. 
Through the tower rises the main air 
shaft terminating in a stack, through 


which foul air and stray gasoline va¬ 
pors may escape. Fresh air for ven¬ 
tilation and engine combustion is taken 
in through openings in the tower when 
. the boat is in action. The exhaust for 
the engines is led up into the air stack. 
An armored ammunition hoist leads 
upward from magazine to after deck. 

The offensive armament consists of 
a bow torpedo tube with three 21-in. 
torpedoes having a range of from 3,500 
to 5,000 yd. and a speed of 35 knots. 
The torpedoes are discharged from the 
tube 13 ft. below the water surface. 
Two rapid fire guns on the upper deck 
serve to keep hostile torpedo boats and 
destroyers at a distance. 

When the subsurface boat is not in 
action the upper hull will afford the 
usual conveniences for stowing boats 
and anchors, and for exercising the 
crew. Amidships, between the cellu¬ 
lose compartments on the sides, are ar¬ 
ranged comfortable quarters for the of¬ 
ficers and crew. Thus when fighting 
is not in progress the subsurface boat 
is much like any other. When the 
danger zone is approached, however, 

the crew get into the submerged hull. 
Then the greater part of the upper, 
or exposed, hull could be shot away 
without destroying the stability or ef¬ 
ficiency of the submerged torpedo 

boat. The vessel is patented and costs 
$250,000. Gasoline engines furnish 
the power. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

The latest fad among the wealthy 

is hand-made cloth. This going back 
to hand-made goods in cloth, furniture 
and printing will probably be followed 
by other reversions. 














42 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


MOVING A RAILROAD SIDEWAYS 



Moved 6000 Ft. of Track 4 Ft. Sideways in 8 Hours 


Down on the Panama 
Canal machinery must 
be made to relieve hand 
labor to the utmost, and 
if no machine is at 
hand to do the work 
required, the engineers 
have to rig up some¬ 
thing even though the 
device is not described 
in the books. Such a 
machine is the patented 
invention of General 
Manager Bierd, of the 
Panama railroad. He 
had occasion to move 
many miles of track 
several feet to one side. 

To do this he rigged up 
the machine shown in 
the cut which operates very much like 
a steam shovel with hooks instead of 
the shovel. Two lifts are made of each 
section, one rail length long, with a 
crew consisting of a foreman, engineer, 
fireman and four laborers. In 8 hours 
they move 6,000 ft. of track a distance 
of 4 ft. sideways at a cost of half a 
cent a foot. 

-» - ♦ ♦- 

MACHINE DRAWS MAPS OF 
OCEAN BOTTOM 


An instrument has recently been in¬ 
vented for recording the depth of 
water, and which makes a pen record 


something on the principle of the ma¬ 
chine which records the rough places in 
,a railroad track. A slab of metal at¬ 
tached to a rope is dragged over 
the bottom by a boat moving slowly. 
The other end of the rope extends over 
pulleys to the charting room, where a 
pen records the ups and downs, or peaks 
and valleys of the bottom, making a 
topographical map. Experts know 
how to translate these tracings into feet 
or fathoms. The results are much more 
accurate and vastly quicker than the 
old method of sounding with a hand 
line. 

-» - 



Records Submarine Elevations 


GOLD CARGO; DIDN’T KNOW IT 


The captain of the “Ohio” sailed 
into Seattle with a gold laden cargo 
when the captain thought he had only 
sand ballast. The ship was partly 
wrecked at home, and after temporary 
repairs had to go to Seattle for dock¬ 
ing. Several hundred tons of sand bal¬ 
last were dredged near Nome and 
loaded into the hold. On arrival at 
Seattle its rich gold bearing qualities 
were accidentally discovered by a dock 
hand, who panned a shovelfui and re¬ 
ported .his find. 

































































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


43 



CAVALRY HORSES USED AS TELEGRAPH WIRES 


\ 

Scout on Horseback Sends Telegrams to Distant Headquarters without Stopping 


[The following is condensed from a detailed ac¬ 
count by First Lieutenant A. C. Knowles, which 
appears in the Journal of the U. S. Cavalry Asso 
ciation for July.—Editor.] 

The photographs shown herewith il¬ 
lustrate a combined, telegraph and tele¬ 
phone system in which the horses are 
a part of the electrical circuit. The 
riders are equipped with breast reels, 
containing five miles of wire, and cav¬ 
alry buzzers, or instruments for receiv¬ 
ing and transmitting messages. 

Heretofore when a mounted scout, 
equipped in this manner, desired to 
communicate with the main force, or 
headquarters, it was necessary for him 
to dismount and establish a connection 
by driving a metal pin into the ground. 
This completed a circuit through the 
line he was reeling out, his instruments, 
and thence through the earth to the 
home station. This, however, was very 
inconvenient, due to the necessity of 
dismounting. Also it was an impossi¬ 


bility for the station at headquarters 
to get into communication with the 
scout except when the latter chose to 
drive the connecting pin into the earth. 

Many experiments were tried, until 
finally those of Lieutenant Knowles 
were successful, and a system was 
evolved which works satisfactorily. 
When a mounted operator is sent out 
to accompany a reconnoitering patrol, 
or any body of troops whose duty takes 
them far enough away from the main 
force to make electrical communica¬ 
tion desirable, constant connection can 
be had with them through the rider. It 
is not necessary for him to dismount to 
establish a circuit, for he can receive 
messages even while his horse is on a 
trot. This enables the officer at head¬ 
quarters to call the party back after it 
is several miles away; change the order 
as to destination; or give any emer- 



Buzzer, Head Piece, Transmitter and Breast Reel 




























44 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


gency order which may be necessary. 
Heretofore a mounted messenger had 
to follow at full speed to find and over¬ 
take the party, with loss of valuable 



New Wireless Outfit 

time when each minute counts. To ac¬ 
complish this the body of the horse is 
made part of the circuit, by means of a 
small piece of copper placed next the 
skin—the hair having been shaved off, 
and the copper plate connected to the 
instrument. 

As the horse always has one or more 
feet upon the ground, except possibly 
for an instant when galloping, a con¬ 
stant ground connection is obtained 
through its hoofs. Of the horses used 
few show any discomfiture at the un¬ 
usual sensation and those that are rest¬ 
ive soon become quieted and accustomed 
to the tingling, as the current passes 
through their bodies. The com¬ 
mander of the patrol may ride along¬ 
side and dictate a message or take the 


telephone attachment himself and talk 
direct with headquarters. All of this 
can be done on a gallop, while the 
scouting force moves rapidly ahead. 

Tests of this system were made over 
all kinds of ground—very wet, muddy, 
moist, perfectly dry and dusty roads 
and fields—and in all cases the tests 
were entirely satisfactory. The illus¬ 
trations show two horses 5 miles apart 
and standing upon grass. Results were 
jDerfect and the receiver could be heard 
several feet away from the instrument. 

The apparatus is very compact, be¬ 
ing packed in two small cases and car¬ 
ried over the shoulder like a field-glass. 
One case contains the telegraphic in¬ 
struments and dry batteries. The other 
carries the telephone attachment. The 
latter is connected by inserting a plug 
in the first-named case. On starting 
out the operator pays out an insulated 
wire which is allowed to fall on the 
ground. This wire is carried on spools 
each containing half a mile. On the 
return, if time and circumstances per¬ 
mit, the wire is rewound on reels 
fastened to the breast of one of the 
men. 

Wireless telegraphy will still play a 
most important part in field work, and 
almost the first duty of a signal corps 
is to set up the apparatus and establish 
communications after a base has been 
chosen. As in almost every-other phase 
of army life, the mule has a very im¬ 
portant duty in the wireless system, for 
it is upon his sturdy back that all the 
apparatus is transported. Recent im¬ 
provements, however, have reduced the 
number of mules required to three: 
One carries the storage batteries, an¬ 
other the operating chest, and the third 
the extension mast, guys and attenna. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

Pearls turned yellow by long wearing 
may be made white again bv placing in 
a bag with wheat bran and moving 

them constantly over a coal fire. 

-»-♦ ♦- 

The biggest cranberry bog in the 
world will occupy 500 acres in Massa¬ 
chusetts and will be artificially irri^ 
gated. 






ENCYCLOPEDIA 


45 


REMOVED A HILL IN THREE YEARS 



This Machine Dug Away a Hill 800 Feet Long 


A manufacturing con¬ 
cern in Cleveland needed 
more room in which to 
build new factories, hut 
a hill 800 ft. long, 500 
ft. wide and 100 ft. high 
stood in the way. It was 
decided to dig away the 
hill and a big steam 
shovel has now finished 
the job after working for 
three years. The shovel 
deposited the dirt into 
small cars from which it 
was dumped into scows 
on the river, and then towed five miles 
out into the lake and again dumped. 

METAL SHELL* FOR BELL 


One of the big projectiles intended 
for the mammoth coast defense guns 
tested at Sandy Hook, exploded while 
being transported thither. The metal 
shell or casing was but little injured, 
and when the public clock at the fort 
gave out, the shell was slung up and 
has been used as a bell ever since. 


The sound is a far reaching and pe¬ 
culiar one, quite unlike any ship’s bell, 
and is produced by striking the shell 
with a piece of hard wood or metal. 
The bell “pounder” is a negro 80 
years old who has been on the retired 
list some time but who refuses to leave, 
or allow anyone else to sound the bell. 
-♦♦ ♦- 

MECHANICAL TRAIN CALLER 

Ho matter how large a depot may be, 
the new system of calling the departure 



Ringing the Bell 



Calls Departure of Trains 


of trains announces the fact simulta¬ 
neously in every part of the building. 
The instrument, which is called a 
telegmagnophone, is really a telephone 
with one transmitter into which the 
caller speaks, and a large number of re¬ 
ceivers connected with horns for mag¬ 
nifying the sound. It is the intention 
to place the receivers in all the various 
smoking, restaurant and waiting rooms 
where passengers congregate. 


























4G 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


RAILROAD SAVES STARVING 
SHEEP 


To Do So Abandons All Other Traffic 


The Queensland downs of New 
South Wales are the richest sheep pas¬ 
tures in the world—except when one of 
the fearful drouths occur, such as hap- 



Rescued From Famine 


pened last year. At that time sheep 
valued at $10,000,000 were threatened 
with utter extinction. Owners were in 
despair and appealed to the Govern¬ 
ment for help. 

A narrow gauge steam railway trav¬ 
erses the district, and was used in sav¬ 
ing the flocks. For weeks other traffic 
was abandoned, and everything in the 
shape of a car was pressed into service. 
As there was water at one end of the 
line, wooden tanks were built as fast as 
possible, placed on cars, filled, and kept 
moving constantly, carrying water all 
along the line. The sheep quickly 
learned that the sound of a locomotive 
whistle meant renewed life, and hun¬ 
dreds were killed beneath the wheels in 
their irresistible rush for the water 


train. Hundreds of tons of molasses 
and sugar cane tops were shipped in to 
relieve the famine until the herds could 
be removed. 

The sheep were brought out of the 
district in freight cars of every descrip¬ 
tion. Thousands were too w T eak to walk 
and had to be lifted aboard by men. 
Once on a train it was rushed to des¬ 
tinations where there were water and 
feed. 

During the few months of drouth 
more than 1,000,000 sheep, 7,000 
horses and 6,600 cattle were carried on 
the little road. In all the history of 
railroading there never was an instance 
where a line was given up to work of 
this kind exclusively for so long a 
period. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

MOUNTAIN CLIMBING SLED IN 
SWITZERLAND 


There has been introduced in the 
Swiss mountains, for use during win¬ 
ter months, a mountain climbing sled, 
which is proving as convenient as the 
bicycle on level ground. The sled con¬ 
sists of two bobs and is propelled by 
pedals and gears and a sharp toothed 
wheel which is forced down into the 
hard snow of a path. The general con¬ 
struction requires no detailed explana¬ 
tion. Any person handy with tools can 
build one out of two worn out bicycles, 
and for use on frozen rivers, ponds or 
lakes it will be found capable of high 
speed. 



Propelled Like a Bicycle 












ENCYCLOPEDIA 


47 



Photo Courtesy Curtiss Mfg. C>. 


The above illustration shows Capt. T. S. Baldwin’s airship starting on its flight near 
Hammondsport, N. Y. The gasbag is 52 ft. long and 17 ft. in diameter. The frame is 42 ft. 
long and 3 ft. high. This flight lasted 30 minutes, during which the ship rose to a height 
of 3,000 ft. and maneuvered successfully, alighting within a few feet of the starting place. 
The test was watched by prominent officers of the army. 


TYING SACKS WITH WIRE LOOK-OUT MAN FOR AUTOS 


Millers are finding. they can save 
time by tying sacks with a piece of 
wire instead of 
twine. The Amer¬ 
ican Miller tells 
how to do the ty¬ 
ing : 

“Wrap the wire 
around the mouth 
of the sack twice, 
being careful to 
bring the second wrap so as to be be¬ 
low the first, in order to prevent slip¬ 
ping; then twist the ends of the wire 
twice, cutting the wire and bending 
upward, and the sack is tied. This can 
easily and quickly be done with the 
fingers and will excel all other ties and 
is easily untied/’ 



“The public be,” no not - but 

“informed” regarding all accidents 
hereafter. That is the latest order on 
the Harriman lines. 


Owners of motorcars are experienc¬ 
ing trouble in England, owing to the 
many sharp turns in the road which are 
concealed by tall hedges. The effort 
to have the hedges cut down has raised 



“Car on your Starboard Bow, Sir” 


a storm of protest. ~ The editor of 
Motor, London, facetiously suggests a 
look-out man on the car, preferably an 
old sailor, and pictures him as an¬ 
nouncing through a megaphone “Car 
on your starboard bow, sir.” 
































48 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


MAGAZINE WRENCH 


For rapid work in 
changing tires dur¬ 
ing an automobile 
race the tool illus¬ 
trated is used in 
France The tool is 
nothing more than a 
socket wrench with 
sufficient length to 
hold the number of 
nuts necessary for 
one rim and w r ith a 
shank made to fit 
any brace. As the 
nuts are received one 
by one they compress a helical spring 
in the bottom, and are retained by an 
automatic spring catch at the side, of 
the tool. Each time the spring catch 
is released a nut is ready for service. 
-» ♦ ♦- 

BUND OPERATOR EXPERT TELE= 
GRAPHER 


Gilbert McDonald, of Maunie, Ill., 
occupies a unique position in the field 
of telegraphy. Blind since birth, he 
has nevertheless so perfected himself in 
the art, that he is a skilled operator, 



Blind Since Birth, Expert Telegrapher 


and is thought to be the only one in the 
world in active service. 

When he was 12 years old he com¬ 
menced to study the telegraph. His 
use of the code language was limited 
and to overcome this he wrote long 
lists of words on the typewriter, as 
they came over the wire. In the even¬ 
ings his sisters would teach him the 
meanings of these words. Thus he en¬ 
larged his vocabulary to over 2,000 
words. 

McDonald uses the typewriter with 
dispatch, and when working the tele¬ 
graph key can send over 40 words per 
minute, using either hand. He is as¬ 
sistant station agent, performing the 
usual duties of that position and weigh¬ 
ing baggage by the sense of touch. He 
recently refused the post of instructor 
of telegraphy at the Illinois state school 
for the blind. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

TILTING=BOARD PUMP 


The tilting-board pump is a familiar 
sight in those parts of Bavaria where 



Teeter=Totter Pumps the Water 


irrigation is employed. The pumpers 
stand face to face holding on to a 
cross bar, and by shifting their posi¬ 
tion, forward and back, cause the pumn 
rod to work up and down. Too 
movement should be regular to obtain 
the best results. 

































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


49 


TRACTION ENGINES IN AFRICAN JUNGLES 

Worshiped by the Natives as Fire=Gods—Great Mining Operations 
Impossible without these Trackless Trains 



Assembling a Traction Engine in the Jungle 


In no savage land has such a 
magical change been wrought, mechan¬ 
ically as well as socially, as in West 
Africa, the land of fevers, wild beasts, 
treacherous natives—and golden reefs 
and streams. It is only quite recently 
that King Prempeh sat on his golden 
stool in Coomassie, the capital of Ash- 
antee, and paved his palace yard with 
human skulls. 

He massacred with every circum¬ 
stance of horror, several white mission¬ 
aries and traders, and the British sent 
an expedition against him. After a 
long and costly struggle, the blood¬ 
thirsty tyrant was overthrown and the 
whole territory of Ashantee thrown 
onen to the gold-seekers. 

Bast year over fifty million dollars’ 
worth of bullion and dust was taken 


out of this region under circumstances 
that well illustrate the romance of gold 
hunting. Be it remembered that Ash¬ 
antee is hundreds of miles inland from 
the West Coast of Africa, and Coomas¬ 
sie is fenced in with hundreds of miles 
of pestiferous jungles, and fever- 
haunted swamps, from which at dusk 
rise white steamy vapors, laden with 
death for the white man. 

But the greatest problem of all has 
been that of transport. Pioneers saw 
that every little forest stream fairly 
ran with gold, and it seemed such an 
easy matter to pick up a fortune. La¬ 
bor, however, was not to be had, for 
the West African savage is lazier than 
any other, doubtless by reason of the 
terrible climate. Soon the labor ques¬ 
tion became gravely critical, Decause 

















50 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


great corporations began to establish 
vast and costly plants in Ashantee. 

The wilderness had to be cleared and 
kept cleared. For in these luxuriant 
wilds a clearing of this month be¬ 
comes a jungle the month following. 
And yet, despite all adverse conditions. 
West Africa grew in importance as a 
gold producer. The greatest problem 
of all was the question of transporting 
supplies from big steamers on the coast 
into the heart of this most difficult of 
countries. There was nothing for it, 
after many experiments with great 
trains of coolies who were paid fan¬ 
tastic wages, but to import broad¬ 
wheeled traction engines which, how¬ 
ever, had to be built in convenient sec¬ 
tions, so that they might be borne 
through the tremendous West African 
forests in man-carried loads. 

All these would be dumped down 


near the great mines, and then put to¬ 
gether by natives under the superin¬ 
tendence of white engineers. The first 
engine, when set in motion was wor¬ 
shiped as a god for hundreds of miles 
around, mainly by reason of its great 
strength. Soon passable roads were 
cut through the wilderness from the 
coast, and big trains of broad-wheeled 
wagons passed to and fro carrying ma¬ 
chinery, clothing, tools, provisions and 
a hundred and one necessaries for the 
thousands of white men now employed 
in West Africa’s interior. 

For besides gold there are other 
treasures in' the shape of mahogany 
and teak forests, not to mention great 
deposits of tin. The traction engines, 
therefore, have solved the problem of 
West Africa’s development and enabled 
many struggling properties to tide over 
their bad days. 


NEW TYPE U. S. CRUISERS 



The Birmingham Immediately after Launching 


The latest type of United States 
cruisers, of which the “Chester/’ “Sa¬ 
lem” and “Birmingham” are under 
construction, is seen in the illustration, 


which shows the “Birmingham” imme¬ 
diately after launching. These sister 
ships will use turbine engines and are 
planned to be the fastest in our Navy. 



















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


51 


FIRE DEPARTMENT WORK ON GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION OF U. S. 
JULY FOURTH WHEAT CROP 


Many fire departments have a special 
call assignment for companies during 
the 24 hours of July 4th. The sys¬ 
tem has been a success where it has 
been tried, and when properly planned 
and executed it has reduced the num¬ 
ber of useless runs, besides always 
keeping heavily populated districts 
well protected with reserve companies. 

When a first alarm is sounded, only 
a portion of the usual quota of engines 
respond unless the commanding officer 
rings for others. A second call brings 
the remainder of the companies which 
ordinarily would respond to a first 
alarm. A third call brings the teams 
which usually respond to a secohd 
alarm; a fourth call brings the third 
alarm teams, etc. If the fire grows 
to large proportions, the second and 
sometimes the third call is omitted, 
and the third or fourth alarm, as the 
case may be, sounded direct. 

The average Fourth of July fire is 
usually a small matter, and as a rule 
a single chemical engine is sufficient to 
extinguish it. The alarm system de¬ 
scribed meets the emergency with one 
or two engines and saves the others 
from unnecessary hard runs. 

- ♦ » ♦- 

SUPREMACY OF WHITE BREAD 


White bread is rapidly becoming the 
bread of the entire civilized world, and 
its use is increasing every year. Mill¬ 
ing, a Liverpool journal, says: 

The change is becoming more pro¬ 
nounced every year, but as the wheat 
production in the rye-consuming coun¬ 
tries does not increase pro rata, it is 
throwing more demand on wheat from 
other growers. In the Far East the 
tendency to replace rice by wheat is 
another instance of the triumph of the 
latter. As knowledge grows dietary 
customs give place to more enlightened 
foods. Growers of rice and rye will 
become wheat producers, but probably 
not as fast as the consumers change 
from one to the other food. 


The wheat crop of the United States 
last year was 735,261,970 bu., a 
quantity difficult to comprehend. The 
Scientific American has made a 
graphic illustration of this by an im¬ 
aginary basket 792 ft. in diameter at 



Wheat Pile 980 Ft. High 

the bottom, 1,225 ft. at the top, and 
980 ft. high; or about as high as the 
Eiffel tower. If made into flour a bar¬ 
rel 1,214^ ft. high and 962J ft. at the 

widest part would be needed to hold it. 

-♦* ♦—— 

VERTICAL SLIDING WINDOW 
BLINDS 


A novelty in the construction of 
window blinds for residences or office 
buildings comes from France. The 
blind is composed of vertical slats 



which are carried on two horizontal 
rods, and open and close by sliding to¬ 
ward or from the middle of the win¬ 
dow. The slats remain in the position 
to which they are moved leaving an 
opening of any desired size. 

















































































































52 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


MACHINE RECORDS ROUGH 
TRACK 

A machine which when carried on 
a locomotive or car records the rough 
places in the track has enabled the 
Japanese narrow gauge railroads to 
increase the speed of trains from 24 
to 35 miles an hour. The machine is 


wood. The record is made on a sheet 
of paper which unwinds from a roll, 
and is written with ink by a sapphire 
pointed pen. Several of the recorders 
are in use in Europe and a road in 

this country has ordered one. 

-» ♦ - ♦- 

CEMENT AS METAL PRESERV= 

ATIVE 



Pen Picture of the Jolts 

not unlike the seismograph, which re¬ 
cords the length and severity of earth¬ 
quakes. When used on a railroad it 
records the place and “size” of the jolt 
caused by bad joints in the rails or 
other uneven conditions. The Japa¬ 
nese have even been able to locate soft 
ties in the track, which had escaped 
the inspectors. 

These instruments are very expen¬ 
sive, being made at only one place in 
the world, and then only on special or¬ 
der. In size it is only 10 by 12 by 18 
in., and weighs 33 lb. So sensitive is 
the instrument that on being drawn 
across an apparently smooth floor, it 
records the nailheads and knots in the 


The preservative qualities of cement 
have been well demonstrated in mari¬ 
time work during the past few months. 
The larger vessels on the Pacific coast 
have a coating of fine cement on the 
inside steel plates of the hull. Lately 
a number of these steel-hulled ships 
have been docked for repairs and the 
plates torn away. It was found in 
every instance that where a plate had 
received a cement coating it was as 
sound and bright as when first placed 
in position. 

On the other hand, where a vessel 
had not been coated, the steel was 
pitted and corroded, and in some cases 
this honey-combing extended clear 
through the plate. The effect was 
further noticed on vessels which were 
only lined on the inside. The outside 
half of the steel was thoroughly “rot¬ 
ted,” while the inside, protected by 
cement, was as bright and sound as 
when new. 

-» - ♦ ♦- 

HANDSOME CABIN LAUNCH 

An extremely neat cabin launch has 
been placed on Lake Chautauqua. The 
forward cabin is occupied by the power 
plant and operator, with berth, and 
other conveniences and lockers for 
supplies. An awning with side cur¬ 
tains extends to the main cabin. The 
cockpit also has room for several 
chairs. The boat is 45 ft. long. 



A Pleasing Idea in Motor Boat Construction 





























































encyclopedia 


53 


ENLARGING A TUNNEL IN SCOTLAND 

While Trains Run on Time 


A funnel on the Caledonian Rail¬ 
way, of Scotland, began to give trouble 
on account of the roof falling in. It 
was constructed 55 years ago and was 
driven through solid rock. Springs 
and the locomotive gases caused the 
stone to decay, greatly endangering the 
safety of trains. 

It was decided to remedy this by 
lining the tunnel with brick and at 
the same time widen it from 24 ft. to 
26 ft. 6 in. This was a difficult task 
to undertake without interfering with 
traffic, which was exceedingly heavy, 


fill in with solid masonry to a height 
12 ft. above the original roof line. 

As the workmen tore away the soft 
rock it was deposited along the track 
and not removed until Sunday, as traf¬ 
fic was less congested at that time. As 
the rock was. being removed a supply 
of brickwork and masonry materials 
sufficient for the next week's work was 
brought in. Compressed air was sup¬ 
plied to the shields at all times and 
the tunnel lighted by 300 electric 
lamps. The total cost of the work was 
between $400,000 and $500,000. 



The Shields that Protected Workmen and Trains 


some 200 trains passing each day. 

First the double track system was 
removed and a single track run through 
the tunnel. Narrow gauge lines were 
laid on both sides of the main road¬ 
bed, and on these enormous shields 
were run in to act as protectors for 
the workmen. These shields conformed 
to the shape of the tunnel, as shown 
in the illustration, and were built of 
steel and wood. They served not only 
to protect the men, but supported the 
roof as well and kept the main line 
entirely free from obstruction, form¬ 
ing a tunnel within a tunnel. 

The roof and sides were lined with 
brick, generally six courses deep, al¬ 
though in some places where the rock 
was greatly decayed it was necessary to 


LIFE TINTS FOR THE DEAD 


The latest accomplishment in mod¬ 
ern embalming is a preparation which 
when mixed with the embalming fluid 
imparts to the dead body what is said 
to be a life-like color. By using the 
proper quantity according to the age 
of the deceased the face is given the 
rosy hue of youth or the less pro¬ 
nounced color of adults. The prepara¬ 
tion is non-poisonous, and renders the 
body firm without making it hard. 
-»-«- ♦- 

A new hotel which is being built in 
Paris for American guests will include 
the use of an automobile with each 
suite of rooms. 


















54 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


UNIQUE ADVERTISEMENT OF FISH DEALERS 



An original and in¬ 
teresting idea has been 
made use of by whole¬ 
sale fish dealers in New 
York. 

With the compass 
points as a circular 
border the leading mar¬ 
ket fish are represented 
as swimming toward 
the center, in which is 
printed the name of the 
firm. 

With the name of 
each fish is also given 
the months during 
which it is to be had. 

When you purchase 
any of the fish named, 
in other months of the 
year, the chances are 
you are getting cold 
storage and not freshly 
caught fish. 


ELECTRIC FAN IN THE KITCHEN 


The utility of the electric fan is 
rapidly being extended from offices to 
residences and from the summer 
months to the entire year. 

In the kitchen of residences the fan 
has proved even more welcome than 
in the office downtown of the owner. 
With a medium-sized fan, the position 
of which can be shifted by means of 



Drying Dishes with Fan 


a few feet of flexible cord, even the 
hottest kitchen is made not only en¬ 
durable, but actually comfortable! It 
is a time and labor saver also; kettles, 
pans, and other metal utensils, as well 
as knives, forks and dishes, can be 
dried without wiping by placing the 
articles in the path of the breeze. 
With dishes the best results are had 
by using racks or movable shelves, in 
which the dishes are placed to receive 
plenty of air. When one side is dried 
it is only the work of a moment to 
reverse them and expose the damp 
side. 

Where quick action is needed in the 
home laundry, hang the articles on a 
line directly in front of a fan and 
they will be dried quicker than under 
ordinary conditions out of doors. In 
the sick room a fan is far better than 
ice for cooling purposes, as immediate 
results are had and no dampness is 
caused as with melting ice. 

The electric fan is going to become 
as much of a household necessity as 
the electric light. 






























ENCYCLOPEDIA 


55 


JAPANESE IMITATING AMERl= 
CAN PIANOS 


The dreams which American piano 
and organ manufacturers have had of 
big sales in the far East, as Western 
ideas and luxuries increase, have had a 
set-back. The Japs are making mu¬ 
sical instruments right at home, with 
machinery built in Japan, and which 
is a counterpart of the best machinery 
used here. They now recall with regret 
sundry Japanese workmen whose will¬ 
ingness to work led them to volunteer 
to do anything and everything around 
the factory, and whose skill made them 
prize employes. 

These same willing workers, pos¬ 
sessed of valuable secrets of' manufac¬ 
ture, are now the superintendents of 
piano and organ factories in Japan. 

-» ♦ - 

MELTED METAL RAN INTO THE 

SEA 


Fire recently destroyed a cannery at 

Bellingham Bay, Wash., and $75,000 

worth of pig tin, solder and other 

metals were melted and ran into the 

sea. It is hoped a portion of this 

metal can be recovered, but it will have 

to be shipped back to the smelters and 

go through a refining process before it 

can be used. 

-♦- 

OVERHEAD WASHING MACHINE 


An overhead washing machine is a 
great convenience in washing vehicles. 

It consists of a galvanized steel track 
upon which a roller, mounted upon the 
end of a long arm, travels. The prin- 



Handy Machine for Washing 


cipal working parts are of brass, and 
the water-tight joints are specially 
constructed to not only wear well, but 
to prevent leaking. 

-♦ ♦ 4 - 

A COLD WATER GUN 


American fire departments have oc¬ 
casionally rendered good service in 
dampening the ardor of a mob, but in 
the South African mines the scheme 



Shooting Coulies with Wat.r 


has been perfected and is constantly 
in readiness for use. The Illustrated 
London News says: “The water gun, 
a gigantic fire nozzle traveling on a 
high platform, commands the whole 
compound; and when a row begins 
among the coolies, this harmless but 
effective artillery is brought into play, 
always with excellent effect.” 

- 4 - -*- 4 - 

LARGE GAS HOLDER COLLAPSES 


A large gas holder at Long Beach, 
Cal., collapsed and 700,000 cu. ft. of 
gas escaped. Nearby workmen were 
overcome and rescued with difficulty. 
The gas was carried on the wind for 
miles and the odor hung in the air for 


























































56 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


hours after the accident. The collapse 
was due to the breaking of the reinforc¬ 
ing bands around the holder which had 
been weakened by the corrosive action 
di the moist, salt-laclen sea winds. 


AUTOMOBILE ENGINE CLEANED 
WHILE COASTING 

When coasting a hill of length, open 
the swdtch, open the throttle wide and 
leave in the clutch. This will draw 
full charges of carbureted air through 
the cylinders and expel the unburned 
gases from the muffler. This not only 
cools the engine, says Motor, but the 
spray of gasoline has a cleansing ac¬ 
tion on the valves and piston which 
loosens the burnt oil binding the depos¬ 
its of carbon and dirt. Use care to 
always retard the spark fully and par¬ 
tially close the throttle before turning 

on the switch. 

-♦♦♦- 

ALUMINUM TO PREVENT MER= 
CURY POISONING 

An Italian inventor has discovered 
a plan whereby the disastrous effects 
of mercury upon metallurgical work¬ 
men may be overcome. He has found 
that aluminum has a strong affinity for 
mercury and he proposes furnishing 
the laborers with light aluminum hel¬ 
mets, the breathing spaces being cov¬ 
ered with a fine gauze made of alu¬ 
minum wire. 

■-♦—•—♦- 

The new ocean liner “President Lin¬ 
coln” will be 616 ft. long, with ac¬ 
commodations for 3,750 passengers. 


SCREW 74 FEET LONG 


A remarkable pair of screws for 
shear legs was turned out at works 
near Birmingham, Eng. Each screw 


has a pitch of 2 in., diameter of 11J 
in., with a total length of 74 ft. It 



Hydraulic Forging Machine 



Enormous Lathe—Cutting Screw 74 Ft. Long 








































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


57 


has gun metal bearings and will be 
used in 100-ton shear legs. One of 
these screws is shown in the illustra¬ 
tion. At these works forgings up to 
30 tons are machined and finished. In 
forging, the German hydraulic press 
illustrated is used. 

-♦ ♦ - ♦- 

PLOWING IN A SHIP’S HOLD 

A common, everyday farm plow was 
used in unloading the cargo of the 
“Ammon” at San Francisco. The 
entire hold was filled with 1,500 tons 
of nitre, which had frozen into one 
solid mass and very hard. Explosives 
could not be used, and picks and 
shovels were too slow. As a joke a 
bystander suggested they better use a 
plow. 

The captain, however, decided to try 
the plan, and bought a good sized plow, 
and by means of block and tackle and 
steam winch pulled it back and forth 
the length of the hold. The plow 
loosened the nitre as fast as a big gang 
could shovel it into the steel buckets. 
This is probably the only instance on 
record where a ship’s cargo '••’a a dis¬ 
charged in this way. 

-» ♦- 

The lowest submarine so far is the 
“Octopus,” which stayed down 39 min¬ 
utes in 215 ft. of water off Boston 
Light. Although the pressure at that 
depth was enormous it did not leak. 


MAKING 12,000 MATCHES A 
MINUTE 


Twelve thousand a minute, or 7,200,- 
000 in a day of 10 working hours is 
the record of the latest machine for 
making matches. The whole appa¬ 
ratus is 10 by 12 by 30 ft. in size, 
but it works with such rapidity that 
it has reduced the cost of production 
50%. The machine is eutirely 
automatic and from the time a match 
enters as a block of wood until it 
emerges, ready for packing, it is un¬ 
touched by human hands. 

Cork pine is used for the match tim¬ 
ber and it is purchased in 2-in. planks. 
These are well seasoned, cut into match 
lengths, and fed into the machine by 
means of a block conveyer. The blocks 
pass under a battery of small knives. 
These knives are 48 in number and 
each one gouges down into the 
wood lengthwise with the grain and 
comes up bearing a match splint. 
Every knife cuts 250 splints a minute, 
and as each piece of wood is torn away 
the upper end is forced into a steel bar 
which has a number of perforations, 
each slightly smaller than the match. 

The bar, which securely grips the 
splint, is a link that is part of an end¬ 
less belt 500 ft. in length which takes 
fifty minutes to make a complete cir¬ 
cuit. This belt carries the matches 



Machines that Make the Boxes 












58 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



The Mjtch Machine 


through a paraffin bath shortly after 
they come from the knives. The bath, 
or dip, makes them more inflamma¬ 
ble. The paraffin is kept in a melted 
state by an ingenious contrivance 
which drains off the cooled liquid and 
adds more at a higher temperature. 

The greater portion of the matches 
made now are of the noiseless type; 
that is, they have two tips. This tip¬ 
ping is accomplished by two rollers, 
the phosphorus friction material being 
put on by one and the chlorate of 
potash composition by the other. Both 
of these substances are kept melted in 
a reservoir and the rolls revolve in 
them at exactly the same rate of speed 
that the conveying belt travels, and as 
the match wood lightly touches the roll 
it is tipped with a small quantity of 
the igniting composition. Considerable 
time elapses between the dips, and the 
belt turns in various positions on its 
journey in order that each tip may 
dry to a regular shape. The extreme 
length of the belt is to allow the 
matches to become thoroughly dry be¬ 
fore being packed. 


Just before the belt completes the 
circuit each completed match is pushed 
from its holding bar by pins which fit 
each perforation in the latter. As they 
fall on a shelf an endless chain con¬ 
veys them to the packing table, where 
they are placed in boxes, wrapped and 
sent t6 the shipping room. Only five 
packing girls, and two helpers, are re¬ 
quired to tend one machine, doing the 
work which in the older processes re¬ 
quired twenty-five persons with a much 
smaller output. 

In the old style of match-making 
a veneer was pared from a basswood 
log. This was cut into splints 17 in. 
long, the length of eight matches. x\. 
number of these were piled in a veneer 
cutter and an 8-bladed knife making 
150 strokes per minute divided them 
into sections. The matches were paraf¬ 
fined in a big screen drum which 
dipped in a huge vat. After being 
dipped they were straightened by one 
machine, placed in dipping plates by 
another, and tipped by still another de¬ 
vice. 

The operation of making the boxes 
is one that is almost as interesting as 
making the match itself. The box- 
board comes to the factory in large 
rolls and is there cut into sizes required 
for the various matches. It is then 
fed into the box machine and is 
stamped with the name of the com¬ 
pany, cut to shape, and folded. The 
strip of sand paper on each side is 
made by passing a glue covered roller 
along the box and then throwing sand 
up against it. 

Match-making by the new automatic 
machinery has already effected a sav¬ 
ing to the consumer. Where formerly 
100 matches were sold for a penny 
the consumer now pays only five- 

eighths of a cent for that number. 
-♦ - 

As was predicted a year ago, the 
craze for young employes is beginning 
to subside, and it is perceived that ex¬ 
perience and reliability are better than 
mere youth. The age limit for enter¬ 
ing the employ of the Pennsylvania 
railroad has been raised from 35 to 45 
years. 





















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


59 



Compressed Air Plant for Working Pneumatic Tools on Indian Locomotive 


THE RAISING OF SUGAR BEETS 


A Vast Industry Waiting for Labor=Saving Machinery 


Sugar was made from beets one hun¬ 
dred years ago, but it cost as much 
to make one pound then as the grocer 
charges for 15 lb. now. While improved 
machinery has contributed its share to 
this reduction, an improved beet has 
done more, for 2,400 lb. of sugar is 


raise beets indefinitely without destroy¬ 
ing the land, as was once feared. 

A sugar beet seed is really five to 
seven seeds in one—there’s a fortune 
for a machine which will separate these 
•germs without crushing—hence a vast 
amount of hand work becomes neces- 



Mechanical Hoe for Working Sugar Beets 


now. obtained from one acre against 
480 lb. in the early days. 

When a beet sugar factory is built 
it means increased value for thousands 
of acres of land; in many cases an ad¬ 
vance from $10 to $100 per acre. And 
this is permanent, for the department 
of agriculture has found out a way to 


sary to thin beets soon after they come 
up. Here’s a chance for another ma¬ 
chine. Then there are from two to 
five hoeings. This, too, has been hard 
work, although a new machine hoer is 
being tried. This queer device is 
mounted on high wheels, and is driven 
by a gasoline engine. Several steel 


< 

















60 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


/ 



shafts hang from springs and universal 
joints which permit movement in every 
direction. The lower end of the shaft 
has a steel disc which revolves rapidly. 
The operators guide this circular tooth¬ 
less saw where it will do the most 
harm to the weeds. The machine 
needs improving. 

The harvesting includes three opera¬ 
tions, lifting, pulling and topping. A 
sort of plow loosens the beet but it 
must be pulled by hand and the tops 
cut off. Many forms of beet harvest¬ 
ers have been constructed, but none 
has come into general use. The cost 
of hand harvesting is from $5 to $8 
per acre. A practical harvester will 
certainly be worked out before many 
years. When harvested the beets should 
be hauled at once to the factory, or to 
the railroad for shipment. At the fac¬ 
tory a system of siloing is employed 
when the shipments come in faster 
than they can be worked up. 

The effort is to have the beet raisers 
plant at different times to spread the 
harvest time out as long as possible. 
The farmer is glad to join in this be¬ 
cause of the large amount of hand 
work involved at certain periods of the 
beet’s growth. In some states there 
are colonies of experienced beet work¬ 
ers wdio live in houses on wheels and 
move from one beet farm to another. 

These houses will accommodate five 
people and cost $75. The outfit in¬ 
cludes a laundry stove, cooking uten¬ 
sils, woven-wire folding cots, mat¬ 


tresses and blankets. When the work 
for one farmer is finished he furnishes 
the teams to draw the colony to the 
next place or to the depot, if the dis¬ 
tance requires transportation by rail. 

The industry of beet raising in this 
country is a large and growing one. 
Last year the crop produced 312,900 
tons of sugar, valued at $28,162,800. 
The opportunities for the invention 
and improvement of labor-saving de¬ 
vices in this field are unusually invit¬ 
ing. The average cost of hand labor 
at present required on each acre of 
beets is $20. Suitable machinery if it 
could be had, would reduce this figure 
at least one-half. This would mean 
a saving on the year past of $10 per 
acre on 307,000 acres or $3,070,000. 
The current yearbook of the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, from which these 
facts are taken, devotes considerable 
space to beet raising. 

-» - 

VACUUM PROCESS FOR CONCEN= 
TRATINQ ORES 


The new' vacuum process for concen¬ 
tration of ores is attracting consider¬ 
able attention, especially as the ma¬ 
chinery is so simple it can be built in 
almost any machine shop, and in oper¬ 
ation no skilled labor is required. 

Oil and acid are mixed with the 
flowing pulp of crushed ore and water 
as it comes from the crushing mill. 
The oil attaches itself to the minute 
portions of mineral, but has no effect 



> 




Vacuum Concentrator 






















































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


61 



The above picture shows a view in Melbourne, Australia. The large building is the 
government warehouse and cold storage quarters, where fish, meat and produce are 
prepared for shipment to London. 


upon the rocky particles or gangue. 
The whole mixture is then subjected to 
a pressure less than the atmosphere. 

When the vacuum is applied the air 
and other gases dissolved in the mill¬ 
ing water are liberated. These gases 
attach themselves to the greased min¬ 
eral particles and rise to the top, car¬ 
rying the ore with them in the form 
of a rich concentrate, which overflows 
into a pipe leading to a reservoir. 

The rocky particles or gangue re¬ 
main at the bottom and are thoroughly 
agitated until every bubble of liberated 
gas has carried its bit of mineral to 
the surface. They are then discharged 
through a waste pipe. 

The Mining World, London, says: 
“The quantity of oil and acid required 
is not the same for all ores, but usually 
amounts to not more than a few pounds 
—say, from 3 to 10 lb. per ton of ore 
treated.” 

A large variety of oils and similar 
substances have been tried and found 
suitable, such for instance, as Cali¬ 
fornian crude oil, Texas crude oil, 
Texas residuum, fuel oil, Russian 
crude, Borneo, Sumatra, and similar 
cheap oils, tars, blast furnace oils, olive 
oil residues, oleic acid, kerosene, a 
variety of light oils and fish oils. The 
process is patented. 

-♦ ♦♦-— 

Burglars are using automobiles for 
making their “visits” and carrying off 
the plunder. 


FARRAGUT’S FIRST VESSEL TO 
BE SCRAPPED 

The old weather-scarred frigate 
“Saratoga” is to be destroyed. This 
was Admiral Farragut’s first command, 
and since 1889 it has been the training- 
ship for the Pennsylvania Nautical 
School, an institution maintained by 
the state for training the youth of 
Pennsylvania in the science and prac¬ 
tice of navigation. During her cruises 
the “Saratoga” has visited all the 
prominent continental ports and places 
of interest in the world. 

Four years ago it was necessary to 
completely overhaul her on account of 
the terrific storms that she had passed 
through. On the last cruise out six 
gales were encountered in thirteen 
days and it required every effort of the 
youthful crew to keep the old vessel 
afloat. When it was finally brought 
safe to shore, the naval authorities 
found that it would require too much 
money to put it back into shape again, 
so determined to sell it for old junk. 



























(i 2 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


KILLED BY CHARGED FENCE 
WIRE 


Death recently came to a ranchman 
of Bellegrade, Mont., in an unusual and 
peculiar form. A highly charged trans¬ 
mission wire, which crossed his ranch, 
became broken in some manner and 
one end fell across a barbed wire fence. 
The ranchman, not knowing of the 
break, attempted to crawl through the 
fence. His body completed a circuit 
to the ground and he was instantly 
electrocuted. His wife attempted to 
remove the body hut was rendered 
senseless by the shock she received. 
Neighbors finally removed the corpse, 
but only after considerable danger to 
themselves. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

CUTTING PILES UNDER WATER 



The illustrations show a complete ap¬ 
paratus for sawing off piles as deep as 

24 ft. below the 
surface. The first 
is a pile driver 
from which the 
hammer has been 
removed and the 
sawing mechan¬ 
ism has been sub¬ 
stituted between 
the guides. At 
the end of the 
saw-shaft (Fig. 
2) is seen a loop 
by which it can be raised or lowered. 
In the middle is a drum for belt, and 
just below it appear the rollers, which 
are to fasten to the guides to keep the 
belt in place. A spline through the 
whole length of the shaft makes the 



Shaft with Saw 


saw readily adjustable to any depth 
within its range and also takes up any 
vertical motion of the pile driver due 
to motion of the water. The shaft is 
in. diameter and counterbalanced by 
the timber shown in Fig. 1. For most 
piles a 42-in. saw is sufficient, and 10 
hp.; for extra large piles, a 48-in. saw 
and 12 hp. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

CEMENT BLOCKS PRESERVE 
POLES 


To prevent deterioration of wooden 
poles at the surface of the ground, 

where decay usually 
begins, a French in¬ 
ventor uses a pair of 
cement blocks. These 
blocks surround the 
pole and extend 1 ft. 
into the ground. 
When locked in position cement is 
poured between the blocks and pole. 
-» « ♦- 

MAKING JEWELRY AT HOME 


Thousands of women in Massachu¬ 
setts and Rhode Island are earning a 
tidy sum each day without leaving 
their homes. The unprecedented de¬ 
mand for all grades of ornament has 
caused jewelry manufacturers to resort 
to every expedient to supply their or¬ 
ders. The practice of allowing the 
women to take home work, finish it 
and return it to the factory has grown 
up and is now one of the most exten¬ 
sive in the New England states. 

Much of the work is simple and can 
be done by hand; for example, in the 
manufacture of the ring or chain 
purses which are so popular, a pair of 
pliers is the only tool used. The price 
for making one of these varies from 
50 cents, for the small ones, to $1.25 
for the larger size. A fast worker can 
often make two of the smaller in a 
day. 

Some factories have installed foot 
power presses in the houses and larger 
articles are made. Work is delivered 
and collected weekly or oftener, by an 
agent of the company. 



S 
































encyclopedia 


63 

SYDNEY, N. S. W., STOPS A BIG RIVER 

And Diverts Its Waters to City Use 







Couruoy Australian Traveler 


Great Dam and Reservoir 


Sydney, New South Wales, is a great 
consumer of water, and at intervals 
during its century of growth has 
reached out first for small streams, 
then lakes and small rivers, and now 
the entire flow of the Cataract river. 
The river has been brought to an ab¬ 
rupt stop in its course by the con¬ 
struction of a great concrete dam 811 
ft. l&ng and 192 ft. high. The dam is 


158 ft. wide at the base and 16J ft. 
at the top and stores up the flood 
waters in a reservoir 150 ft. deep, cov¬ 
ering 2,200 acres, and containing 21 
billion gallons of water. The work, 
which was done by the government, oc¬ 
cupied two years, cost $1,500,000 and 
was accomplished with machinery 
brought from the United States and 
England. 


♦ ♦ ♦ 


HORSESHOES MADE OF ASBESTOS 


Visitors to the volcano of Kilauea, 
on the island of Hawaii, generally ride 
on horseback, and in crossing what is 
known as the "pit,” the horses suffer 
much from the great heat. The earth 
is so hot that the hoofs of the horses 
are not infrequently scorched. As some 
protection became very necessary, a 
clever blacksmith in Honolulu has re¬ 


cently devised a very successful method 
by which asbestos may be used. 

The idea is to provide the hoofs of 
the horses with an asbestos covering 
much after the fashion of the outer 
shield of iron-studded leather or can¬ 
vas over the automobile tires. These 
hoof shields may be put on and re¬ 
moved at pleasure. 















64 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



RAILROAD CROSSES A MUD 
DESERT 


Kailroads are sometimes built under 
very peculiar conditions. This is the 
case with the Western Pacific Trans¬ 
continental line that is being construct¬ 
ed from Salt Lake City to San Fran¬ 
cisco. The line runs 38 miles through 
a stretch of the Utah desert, where 
nothing but soft alkali mud is to be 
found. This “mud desert” seems to 
have no bottom and it was exceedingly 
difficult to secure a satisfactory foot¬ 
ing for the roadbed. 

The trouble was solved by a founda¬ 
tion made of heavy planking laid' 
checker-board fashion. Temporary 
tracks were laid on this and ballast 
trains distributed their load upon the 
wooden base. The rails were raised, as 


the depth of the ballast increased, un¬ 
til the proper grade was reached. The 
roadbed was then covered with cement 
and gravel, which formed a hard level 
surface for the tracks. The filling and 
mud of the desert practically excludes 
the air from the planking and insures 
it against decay for a long period of 
years. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

COLONIAL WALL PAPER REVIVED 


The wall papers brought from Na¬ 
ples a full century ago still remain 
with colors so fresh they promise to 
endure another hundred years, in many 
New England homes. So attractive 
are these quaint designs that w r all pa¬ 
per makers are now busy copying them 
for 20th century residences. The de¬ 
signs are largely landscape scenes. 



Tinted Shingles Are Now Made of Cement 













ENCYCLOPEDIA 


65 



Triumphal arch of great magnificence erected for the installation ceremonies of Prince 
Ranjitsinhji- the Jam of Newanager. The elephants were covered with costly tapestries, 
ornamented with gold and illuminated at night with hundreds of electric lights. The Jam 
rode through the arch in a silver carriage, wearing a red robe prepared for the occasion 
and destroyed immediately afterwards. The throne and canopy are of solid gold. During 
the ritual the Jam is required to hold a cocoanut in his hand. 


LARGEST GASOLINE PASSENGER 
LAUNCH IN THE WORLD 


What is believed to he the largest 
gasoline passenger launch in the world, 
says the Journal of Electricity, has 
been in regular service since January 
1st, plying between San Pedro harbor 
and San Diego, Cal. The vessel is 140 
ft. long, 22 ft. beam, with a draft of 
10 ft. It carries 256 gross tons of 
cargo, and 260 passengers at an aver¬ 
age speed of 14 knots per hour. The 
equipment consists of two 300-hp. 6- 
cylinder engines, which drive twin 
screws. It is said that the engines 
have never stopped for repairs since 

their first alignment. 

—-—» ♦ ♦- 

GYROSCOPE WILL NOT EFFECT 
SHIP’S STABILITY 


A train of cars, such as Mr. Bren¬ 
nan’s monorail type, have the wheels 
fixed so they cannot move to the right 
or left. As a result the center of 
gravity of the car will swing in an arc 
about the point of support. An ideal 


condition for a gyroscope is the result, 
in fact, this is one of the principles of 
that mysterious apparatus. 

The centrifugal force of the spinning 
wheel in a gyroscope applies its bal¬ 
ancing force to the axle points, whether 
it be a pin point or set in a bearing at¬ 
tached solid to some other point. So, 
in the case of the single rail car, the 
double flange wheel at the point where 
it touches the rail takes the same place 
as the point that touches the floor in 
the toy top. 

When the car is in a side wind, as 
shown in Fig. 1, the single rail, A, 
makes a solid point for the gyroscope 
to apply its balancing force. When a 
vessel is tossed about, or a side wind 
strikes it, the gyroscope’s balancing 
effect is lost, as the keel of the vessel 



has no fixed bearing and moves as well 
as the top, as is shown in Fig. 2.—Con¬ 
tributed by W. A. Waller, Lees Sum¬ 
mit, Mo. 






















66 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


FIFTY MILLION GALLON CEN= 
TRIFUGAL PUMP 


Two big centrifugal pumps have 
been built recently to irrigate rice fields 
in Southwest Texas. Each has a daily 



Daily Capacity, 50,500,000 Gal. 


capacity of 50,500,000 gal., or 35,000 
gal. per minute. The impellers are so 
heavy no fly-wheel is required. 

The water is drawn into the pump 
at the horizontal shaft and discharged 
through 36-in. nozzles. Note, in the 
accompanying illustration, the peculiar 
ribbed construction of the pump cas¬ 
ings which gives great rigidity and 
strength. 

-» ♦ ♦ - 

A few years ago all the passenger 

cars on the New South Wales railroads 
had bars across the windows to prevent 
the passengers from putting their 
heads out. The passengers rebelled at 
the risk of being caged in a wreck, 

and the bars have been removed. 

- » ♦ - 

There are 10,460 saw mills in the 

United States. Pennsylvania has the 
iargest number—714, 


A MYSTERIOUS ISLAND 


Denver Island is, at this writing, one 
of the San Juan group in Puget Sound, 
and was an extremely beautiful piece 
of land. A hustling real estate man 
sold it to Cdiarles L. Tutt, a wealthy 
Colorado miner, who intended to erect 
a summer home in the midst of a 
beautiful park. When Tutt went to 
examine his purchase it wasn’t there. 
He insisted he had been swindled, but 
witnesses were produced who swore it 
was formerly at the location stated. 
Tutt wanted his island—where was it ? 

Investigation proved it had com¬ 
pletely sunk beneath the water during 
the San Francisco earthquake, leaving 
several acres of water but no land. 

Recently the owner received notice 
that his island had come up again and 
he lost no time in getting there. The 
trees and foliage were all dead and 
slime covered the surface once green 
with grass, but Tutt had recovered his 
property and promptly christened it 
Denver Island. 

-» - ■» ♦——— V 

FISH SOAP HARMS NICKLE- 
PLATE 


Fish soap as a cleansing medium is 
gradually being replaced by other more 
satisfactory materials, says the Brass 
World. A number of cases are known 
where the use of it has been the di¬ 
rect cause of nickel deposits peeling 
away. 

In one instance it was found that 
the deposit came off notwithstanding 
all efforts to make it stick. The piece 
which was to be plated was first buffed 
and then soaked in a fish soap solu¬ 
tion to remove the dirt collected in 
the corners. After soaking, it went di¬ 
rect to the plating bath without addi¬ 
tional cleansing. As a result an ex¬ 
tremely minute film of fish oil entirely 
covered the work and prevented the 
nickel from closely adhering to it. Af¬ 
ter the trouble was discovered and this 
film removed by placing the article in 
another bath, the peeling of the deposit 
entirely stopped. 














75-TON STEEL FLAT CAR 


Unusual Test to Which Steel Cars Are Put to Determine Their Safe 

Maximum Load 



“As a Test an 80=Ton Locomotive Was Run on the Car” 


Five 75-ton steel flat cars have been 
built at the Collinwood shop of the 
Lake Shore road. These cars are 36 
ft. 6 in. over all and 9 ft. 8 in. wide. 


FAST OCEAN RACING 


Now the record time across the At¬ 
lantic from Daunt’s Rock to Sandy 
Hook lightship is reduced to 5 days 18 
hours and 39 minutes. That was the 
outcome of a spectacular race between 
the English “Lucania” and the French 
“Lorraine/’ in which the former not 
only overtook but passed the latter. A 
lot of money changed hands on the race 
and it was great fun for the passengers. 


It is designed to stand an overload of 
10 per cent., and as a test an 80-ton 
locomotive was run on the car, as seen 
in our illustration. 

♦- 

ESCAPE FROM A VAULT 


A knowledge of telegraphy enabled 
Geo. Stewart, who was accidentally 
locked in a safety vault at Pueblo, Col., 
to escape. The office had a private 
wire which passed through the vault. 
By cutting the wire and using the two 
ends as a key he quickly had the sound¬ 
er out in the office repeating the word 
“help” and then slowly spelled out his 
trouble, which secured his release. 












68 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


TESTING THE LIFE OF SPOONS STAMP=SELLING MACHINES 


When a reputable manufacturer of 
plated tableware guarantees a set of 
spoons or forks to last a certain num¬ 
ber of years the purchaser accepts the 


For about two years the advisability 
of setting up slot machines for selling 
stamps has been under consideration 
by the postoffice department. At last it 




“To get quick action natural wear machines aie used” 


statement in good faith, but wonders 
how the maker knows. The life of a 
plated spoon, however, is not a matter 
of guesswork, but is based on actual 
experience. To wait 20 years to deter¬ 
mine whether the ware will endure that 
long would obviously be impracticable. 
To get quick action “natural-wear ma¬ 
chines 7 ’ are used. Tin and china plates 
of various sizes are fastened in a circle 
to a table; over the pates a metal ring 
revolves, to which the article to be 
tested is fastened. An electric motor 
keeps the ring in motion, and at each 
revolution the spoon or fork is dragged 
across ten or a dozen plates. As the 
ring makes 500 revolutions an hour 
each article is dragged across 5,000 
plates, or 120,000 in 24 hours, for the 
machine can be left running all night. 
Hence one or two days in the wearing 
machine would represent as many con¬ 
tacts as a spoon would receive in the 
course of ordinary household use in a 
great many years, and the contacts are 
much harder and longer. 

-♦♦ ♦- 

. congestion of traffic is much re¬ 
lieved by the use of the policeman’s 
whistle at street crossings. One whistle 
means east and west traffic stop, north 
and south go ahead; two whistles mean 
the opposite. 


has been decided to test the scheme in 
different parts of the country. The 
machines will carry postals and stamps 

for 1 and 5 cents. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

HUMAN BAGATELLE BOARD 


The human bagatelle board is a fas¬ 
cinating sport at summer resorts. The 
players seat themselves in wicker bas- 




A New Sport 


















ENCYCLOPEDIA (39 


kets and slide down a steep incline, 
their direction being made uncertain 
on account of striking the iron posts. 
Prizes are awarded the players who 
make the largest score. 

-♦♦ ♦- 

FROSTED BULBS POOR LIGHTERS 


So long as carbon filaments are used 
there will be a fine deposit of carbon 
inside the bulb, and this, together with 
whatever dust may collect on the out¬ 
side, increases the tendency of the rays 
of light to be reflected inside the bulb 
and absorbed by the frosted glass. With 
the new metallic filaments it is claimed 
that all internal deposit is avoided. 
The tungsten filament, for instance, is 
subjected to so high a temperature in 
the process of manufacture that all its 
impurities are said to be driven off. 

-4—- 

NITRATES FROM ATMOSPHERE 
FINANCIAL SUCCESS 


Getting nitrates out of the air by 
electricity has proved a big success. The 
plant at Notoclden, Norway, at first de¬ 
signed to produce 5,000 tons a year, is 
being enlarged to increase the output 
tenfold. The enlarged works will use 
50,000 h. p. from waterfalls, and the 
company is buying large additional 
water rights. Seems like picking 
money out of the air with Chilian ni¬ 
trates fetching $55 a ton. 

-♦ - 

TELEPHONE NUMBER ON COW 


A man living in a Chicago suburb 

who was troubled 
with his cow stray¬ 
ing away conceived 
a novel idea of 
finding her. He 
painted his teie- 
pho ne number 
plainly on the cow, and when the ani¬ 
mal wanders too far away some one 
who finds a strange cow on his prem¬ 
ises calls up the owner, who sends for 
her. 



This unusual photograph shows a cruiser, 
looking aft, the picture being taken from 
above.—Courtesy The Sketch, London. 


It is stated no deposits of coal have 
ever been found in northern Africa. A 
French explorer has been trying to dis¬ 
cover some south of Algeria, but with¬ 
out success. 





























70 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


NEW UNITED STATES WAR BALLOON 

Official Recognition of the Balloon as a Factor to be Considered in Warfare 


The army signal corps at Washing¬ 
ton has a new war balloon, one of the 
largest ever made. It is simply a big 
gas bag and basket, without propellers 
or steering gear, and is capable of lift¬ 
ing four people. This is the first really 
large balloon in use by the U. S. army. 
Its first trip was recently made, going 
from Washington to Linglestown, Pa., 
a distance of 149 miles, in 4 hours 37 
minutes. 

Opinions differ as to the practical 
value of balloons and airships. Rear 
Admiral Sigsbee says: 

“The airship may in time prove a 
dangerous enemy by dropping explo¬ 
sives into a city, but as a force against 
naval fighters it will never do.” 

Rear Admiral Chester says: 

“We old fellows have seen the sailing 
vessel give way to the armor-clad steam 
warships, and I predict that the future 
will see the aeroplane fighting machine. 

“The aeroplane will be used for 
scouting purposes. With the aeroplane 
the enemy can be seen 100 miles away, 
wdiich is now impossible, and with it 
the submarines can be attacked. 

“From the aeroplane, high above¬ 
water, the submarine can be located 


beneath the waves and explosives 
dropped upon it, which is the only ef- 



U. S. War Balloon copyright w. h.»u 


fective way of fighting it. The aero¬ 
plane is the fighting machine of the 
future.” 



l_I. S. War Balloon Partly Inflated C 0p7TigM w - 







ENCYCLOPEDIA 


,71 


PARIS DOG POLICE 

Trained Newfoundlands Rescue Suicides and Are a Terror to Criminals 


Dogs have long been used for smug¬ 
gling on the Franco-Spanish frontier; 
as life-savers on the high passes of Swit¬ 
zerland ; and also on the field of battle 
to seek out the wounded. But it is only 
of recent years that they have come into 
vogue as municipal aids. The idea is 
due largely to the Burgomaster of 
Ghent, who inaugurated the idea, and 
now has nearly 50 canine police at 


quays; and, moreover, "apaches” or 
dangerous hooligans lurked beneath the 
bridges and sallied forth at night, a ter¬ 
ror to the belated pedestrian. These 
thugs occasionally stunned their victims 
and cast them into the river, where 
they were drowned before aid could 
reach them. Thus the Paris dog police 
are both life-savers and deterrent 
agents. 



Trained Dog Police of Paris 


work, greatly to the benefit of the city. 
For crimes—especially night crimes— 
have decreased quite 50% while the ex¬ 
penses have been extremely small. 

It stands to reason a dog is cheaper 
to maintain than a human officer; yet 
if well-trained he is more feared by the 
criminal; swifter in chase, and impos¬ 
sible of evasion, no matter how artfully 
a man may hide. So successful has the 
Ghent experiment proved that the 
movement spread into France, Ger¬ 
many, Italy and Austria. There are 
now bands of powerful Newfoundlands 
employed with the River Police of 
Paris. 

M. Lepine, the Prefect of Police of 
that city, found it very difficult to in¬ 
sure the efficient patroling of the river’s 


During the day they look out for sui¬ 
cides, and persons wffio have fallen into 
the river by accident; and at night they 
patrol the quays with their two-legged 
colleague, to whom they are directly re¬ 
sponsible. 

The headquarters of these dogs is on 
the Quai de la Tourelle, and here they 
are trained in rescuing human life from 
the river by means of dummy figures. It 
is a very amusing sight on practice day 
when the big dummy is thrown into the 
water with a great splash and one of the 
dogs plunges in, dexterously seizes the 
comical figure by the coat at the shoul¬ 
der, and begins to swim for the hank 
with swift and powerful strokes. One 
of the dogs, named Athos, has already 
saved 14 lives in the Seine. 


% 










72 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


A CURIOUS DELUSION 


A normal eye 
never makes mis¬ 
takes, but t h e 
min d often 
draws false in¬ 
ferences fro m 
the data which 
the eye supplies. 
An amusing in¬ 
stance of this is 
i 11 u s trated by 
the accompany¬ 
ing cut, showing 
the steamer Island Queen approaching 
the suspension bridge at Cincinnati 
and only 100 ft. distant. It looks as 
if the steamer’s smokestacks would hit 
the bridge, does it not? That is just 
what several thousands of passengers 
have thought, with more or less alarm. 
The fact is that there is a margin of 
several feet. 

-♦ ♦♦- 

STREET CARS AS DWELLINGS 


Just before the big earthquake the 
street car company in San Francisco 
had put in service several hundred new 
cars, and consequently had an equal 
number of discarded cars on hand. The 
necessity for any kind of shelter cre¬ 
ated an immediate demand for the old 
cars, which were converted into houses. 
The cars were set up close together and 
made a row three blocks long. Small 
sheds or kitchens were added to each. 


water piped in and a small cook stove 
installed, with a stovepipe through the 
roof for a chimney. These emergency' 
houses earned fabulous rents, and are 
still occupied. The illustration shows 

a nearby view. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

AN AMPHIBIOUS AUTO 


Of course it was bound to come—an 
automobile which can be run right into 
the water and become at once an auto¬ 
boat. It was tested recently on the 
Seine, France, making a speed of 55 
miles an hour on land and 15 miles in 



Motor Car=Boat 


water. The front wheels are solid, so 

/ 

that they may be used for steering on 

either land or water. 

- ♦ —♦ ❖- 

Nikola Tesla claims that the Dread¬ 
nought could be destroyed by a tidal 
wave produced by the explosion of an 
8-ft. cubical tank of dynamite below 
the surface even at a distance of 1J 
miles. 




Several Thousand People Live in These Street=Car Houses 


































































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


73 


FLYING ON THE STAGE 





The mystery of living figures on the stage which float motionless in mid-air or fly grace¬ 
fully about have ceased to be a secret; everybody knows the performers are suspended by 
means of fine wires of unusual strength. The public never sees the machinery for raising 1 
and lowering the wires, and the above illustration, which shows how this is done, will be 
interesting. The drums on which the wires are wound are turned by hand, and require con¬ 
siderable practice in their operation. The operators all face a leader, who gives the orders 
quite like the leader of an orchestra. 





BARREL POSTOFFICE IN MID=OCEAN 


About 600 miles west of Ecuador, on 
the Equator, lie the Galapagos or Tor¬ 
toise • Islands. A barrel anchored se¬ 
curely off the shore serves as an inter¬ 
national postoffice. It has neither post¬ 
master, regular mails, stamps, nor ap¬ 
propriation—just an old barrel, placed 
there by the British government for the 
reception of mail by passing ships. 


And yet two letters have recently 
been received at Washington, D. C., 
from the barrel postoffice of the Pacific 
and will be duly forwarded to the per¬ 
sons addressed. Having been written in 
October, 1905, and being rather the 
worse for weather and insects, these let¬ 
ters will probably have more interest 
as curiosities than as news. 







74 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


ELECTRIC MECHANICAL BOOK = 
KEEPER 


One of the leading Chicago banks, 
which employs 600 clerks, expects to 
be able to greatly reduce its force by 
the use of a new mechanical calculator. 
This machine does much more than 
the adding machines already in general 

O o 



The Mechanical Bookkeeper 


use. It adds, subtracts, divides and 
multiplies and calculates in both ver¬ 
tical and horizontal lines simultaneous¬ 
ly. It is operated by keys and resem¬ 
bles a typewriter. It is run by a small 
electric motor and prints its records. 
It is the invention of a bank bookkeep¬ 
er, who has spent 12 years in perfecting 
it. He claims it will save one-half the 
time now spent in keeping books. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

AN ELECTRIC BATH 


The usual methods of applying elec¬ 
tricity for remedial purposes are un- 

s a tisfactoy 
in several re¬ 
spects. If elec¬ 
trodes are ap¬ 
plied to different 
parts of the body 
much of the cur¬ 
rent passes over 
the surface and 
a strong current 
is too intense at 
the points of application. If it is 
sought to avoid these objections by 


placing the patient in a bath tub most 
of the current will go directly through 
the water, besides all the trouble and 
exposure of the bath. To obviate these 
and other difficulties four small baths 
have been devised, one for each limb, 
as seen in the cut. They are tilled with 
water to cover J of the upper arm and 
§ of the leg, and each tub has an elec¬ 
trode. In this way the action of the 
current may be made either local or 
general, and may be so directed as to 
affect certain organs especially. There 
is no need of undressing or of lying 
down, the latter being particularly im¬ 
portant in cases of weak heart. 

--— 

ENGLISH CABLE TRUCK 


The illustration shows the latest 
heavy truck construction for handling 
big drums of telephone or telegraph 
cable, with one man and one horse. A 
load can be taken on or discharged in 
four minutes. On each of the inclines 
is seen a groove. In these grooves slide 
two iron supports on which the ends of 



Loads 4 Tons in 4 Minutes 


the drum axle rest, and each support 
is attached to a worm gear (seen in 
front of the drum) by a light cable. 
By this gear one man has no difficulty 
in drawing up a 4-ton drum. 

-♦♦ ♦-- 

The sum of $3,000,000 has been ap¬ 
propriated by New York City for a 
memorial bridge across the Spuyten 
Duyvil, to commemorate the tercenten¬ 
ary of the discovery of the Hudson 
River. 




























ENCYCLOPEDIA 


75 


TRACTION ENGINES IN LUMBER TRADE 



Bringing Big Logs to the Mill 


Like small streams running to a 
great river the traction engine lines of 
the California logging districts feed the 
railroads. Next to the Puget Sound 
country the mountains of the coast 
range and the Sierra Nevadas in north¬ 
ern California furnish the most exten¬ 
sive logging industries west of the Mis¬ 
souri river. These vast forests contain 
redwood, yellow and sugar pine, cedar, 
fir and tamarack. The lumber is 
shipped cast and exported to Mexico, 
Panama, the Central and South Ameri¬ 
can ports, Sandwich Islands, China, 
Japan, Australia, and even Europe. 

In the movement of logs to the mill 
and lumber to the railroad, traction 
engines have replaced horses, mules and 


oxen almost entirely. A few teams are 
used to get the logs out to the wagon 
road, but much of this work is now 
done with donkey engines and wire 
ropes. It is no longer necessary to lo¬ 
cate the mill on the railroad, for it 
can be erected in the woods and the 
lumber hauled on traction trains over 
any wagon road where teams can draw 
a load. It is much cheaper and quicker 
to build a good wagon road and equip 
with traction engines and wide-tired 
log wagons than to build the logging 
railway formerly employed, and when 
the district is cut over there is no track 
to take up and move. The size of the 
loads which can be drawn and the 
grades climbed is surprising. 



Hauling Lumber from Mill to Railioad 














76 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


HEAVIEST PASSENGER LOCO¬ 
MOTIVE 

What is said to be the heaviest pas¬ 
senger locomotive yet turned out has 


ety of possibilities. In case an aspirant 
for the stage is long on voice but short 
on looks or shape the idea of inducing 
the manager to listen to her singing 
through the telephone is decidedly clev- 



Heaviest Passenger Locomotive 


been built by the American Locomo¬ 
tive Company for the Pennsylvania 
road. It has 80-in. driving wheels and 
cylinders 24 by 26 in. Heating sur¬ 
face, 4,427 sq. ft.; boiler pressure, 205 
lbs. Weight, on trucks, 45,000 lbs.; on 
drivers, 177,700 lbs., and on the trailer, 
45,300 lbs.; total (without tender), 
268,200 lbs. 

-—- 

SONG BY PHONE GETS POSITION 


A young woman at Reading, Pa., has 
started a new way of securing an oper¬ 
atic engagement, by singing a sample 
number into a long-distance telephone 
to a manager in Philadelphia. She got 
the job. The scheme opens up a vari- 


er, for both distance and mystery lend 
their enchantment. On the other hand, 
may not this young woman's success in 
getting an engagement “on the wire*’ 
cause such a rush of singers to the tele¬ 
phone booths that managers will abso¬ 
lutely refuse to listen to any telephonic 

tones, however sweet? 

-»- ♦ ♦-- 

BIG COLORADO DAM 

The plans are drawn and the capi¬ 
tal secured for a dam to hold back the 
waters of five rivers—a grand total of 
5,000,000,000 cu. ft. of water. It will 
be 1^ miles long, 150 ft. high and will 
cost $4,000,000. All of which is to 
happen 9 miles northwest of Denver, 
Col. 



The Thomas P. Cole, 605 ft. 5 in. in length, longest vessel ever built for fresh water, on 
her trial trip. She is equipped with submarine telephone system and an electric whistle, 
which is sounded by means of a Morse key. An automatic arrangement sounds a blast every 
10 seconds when in fog. 

































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


77 



STOKING THE RETORTS—The above animated illustration from the London Sketch 
shows the men stoking the retorts in one of the big gas plants. A long sort of scoop is filled 
with coal, pushed into the retort, and is then turned round so that the coal falls out. The 
scoop is also used to push back the material that has already been placed in the retort. This 
is such an exhausting task that, though the stokers have 8-hour shifts, they actually work 
under 5'/ 2 hours, as they have to rest 20 minutes out of every hour. They have their comi- 
pensations, however, for along with the other employes, many of them ex-soldiers, they hold 
stock to the value of $1,675,000 in the company, which turns out yearly 13,000,000,000 ft. of 
gas, for which 1,200,000 tons of coal are required. 


WHALE LEATHER FOR GLOVES 

The industrial use of the whale in¬ 
volves a wicked waste of material. For 
instance, from a right whale 50 ft. long 
may be obtained 250 bbls. of oil and 
perhaps 1J tons of whalebone. The re¬ 
mainder of the vast: carcass, some 50 
tons, is thrown away as absolutely 
worthless. There seems to be a gold 
mine here for any one with the enter¬ 
prise and capital to work it. The hide 
of one whale, spread out, would cover 
1,500 sq. ft., and when tanned makes 

excellent gloves and leather. 

- ♦ ♦ ♦ - 

A TUNNEL ON PILES 

A very unusual piece of engineering 
work is now being done in connection 
with the Brooklyn tunnel under East 
river. The tunnel rests on soft mud 
and quicksand m many places, and it 
was feared the additional weight of the 
trains might cause it to sag and break. 
To prevent such a disaster- holes 20 in. 


in diameter are being cut through the 
bottom of the big steel tube and hollow 
steel piles in 5-ft. sections are put down 
into the mud. As fast as one section is 
down it is filled with cement and an¬ 
other 5-ft. section bolted to it and treat¬ 
ed in the same way. This is continued 
until the built-up pile is 50 ft. long. 
Instead of driving, the pile is sunk by 
washing out a hole for it with a strong 
jet of water, into which the pile sinks 

of its own weight. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

CONCRETE HOUSE COSTS MORE 
THAN WOOD 


The comparative cost of a dwelling 
in New York state containing 10 living- 
rooms and 2 bath rooms, according to 
materials used, has been found to be as 
follows: For wood construction a con¬ 
tractor bid $6,000; for concrete with 
wooden floors, $8,900; for hollow-tile 
blocks in walls and partitions and some 
concrete, $6,500. 






















78 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



Chief of Detroit Fire Department 


A SUBSTITUTE FOR GASOLINE 


The enormous and increasing con¬ 
sumption of gasoline, besides the fact 
that it is practically under the control 
of the strongest trust in the world, 
makes any feasible substitute welcome. 
An English firm will soon place benzol 
upon the market as such a substitute, 
put up in cans of convenient size for 
use on motor cars. Benzol is very like 
gasoline in appearance and qualities, 
and can be sold at about the same price, 
with the great advantage that it is not 
in the grasp of the oil trust. It is a rec 
tified spirit from the distillation of 


coal tar, which is a by-product of the 
manufacture of coal gas. 

Experiments are still being made to 
perfect it as a motor fuel. It is claimed 
that benzol has some advantage over 
gasoline in potential energy, as tested 
by actual use in motor-car engines. Of 
course objections have been made to it, 
of which one is that benzol vapor is 
extremely poisonous. In odor it can 
claim no superiority over gasoline, the 
bouquet from the exhaust being just as 
sweet. 

-♦ - 

CONCRETE BRIDGE—NOT REIN¬ 
FORCED 


While nearly all concrete work is re¬ 
inforced in some way, it is noteworthy 
that a bridge is to be built in Baltimore 
of concrete pure and simple. And yet 
it is to be 322 ft. long, with one span 
of 142 ft. and three of 60 ft. each. The 
concrete will be made of one part ce¬ 
ment to three of sand and six of broken 
stone. It is to cost $175,000. 

- ♦ ♦ ♦ - 

Clean gold or silver watch chains by 
immersing for 5 seconds in pure am¬ 
monia, rinse in alcohol and shake drv 
in clean sawdust. 



One of the floats in the annual parade at Los Angeles was named the “Coral” and repre¬ 
sented a submarine scene. It was mounted on a street car truck, took its power from the 
trolley line, and was brilliant with sea-green electric lights. 



























ENCYCLOPEDIA 


79 


AIRSHIPS IN CHICAGO 

The Aero Club Gives Its First Exhibition 


The opening of the Chicago Aero 
Club attracted considerable attention, 
the exhibit including three airships 
and one aeroplane. Capt. Mattery had 
a large ship with an 8-cylinder engine 


of 30 h. p.; Horace Wild and Chas. K. 
Hamilton each had an airship. A few 
flights were made but the entire week 
was rainy with high winds, which 
made long flights impossible and ascen- 



theAERO club 

OF CHICAGO. 


Scenes at the Chicago Aero Club 

























80 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


sion dangerous. The gas bags were 
kept inflated constantly in hopes of the 
wind going down. 

Mr. Lesli made one ascension in his 

double deck 
glider which 
was 20 ft. 
long, 6 ft. fore 
and aft, with 
200 sq. ft. of 
surface. The 
tail was 11 ft. 
long; the 
decks 4 ft. 
apart. We say 
“was” because the machine was wrecked 
by the storm on the last day. 

On entering the grounds of the Aero¬ 
drome the first that attracts the atten¬ 
tion of the sightseer is the various tents 
that cover the huge monsters of the 
air. The tents all seemed to be se¬ 
curely staked to the ground in order 
to hold the great gas bags from taking 
their flight. Near the side of each 
tent some tanks and barrels could be 
seen which formed the apparatus for 
making the hydrogen gas used in the 
gas bags. A combination of iron fil¬ 
ings, sulphuric acid and a secret prepa¬ 
ration makes this gas. A tube of cloth 
and about six inches in diameter con¬ 
veyed the gas from the tanks to the 
gas bags. The gas bag is constructed 


of a very fine grade of silk which is 
sewed together in squares with strips 
of heavier material. It is then oiled 
with a preparation that will not get 
hard. From these great bags, which 
are about 55 or 60 feet in length and 
20 feet in diameter, is suspended, by 
a network of fish line, a small three- 
cornered frame made from spruce sticks 
and braced with piano wire. On this 
light frame and near the middle is 
bolted the motor that drives the 16- 
foot propeller wheel. On the various 
types of airships this motor differed 
in style and construction, ranging 
from 6 to 40 hp. and 2 to 
8 cylinders. A tank for gasoline as 
well as a small storage battery is at¬ 
tached to the light frame. A large 
frame made of spruce and covered with 
muslin and fastened to the rear end of 
the light frame forms the rudder. The 
daring aeronaut strides the light frame 
and when in midair controls the motor 
by a long rod along the frame and 
changes the course of the ship by guide 
ropes to the rudder and changing his 
position along the frame. 

The entire weight of an airship is 
about 350 pounds, while the motors 
weigh from 96 to 165 pounds. The 
light spruce frame will weigh from 65 
to 80 pounds. The propeller is placed 
at the forward end. 























ENCYCLOPEDIA 


81 


INVENTED THE TELEPHONE PROGRESSIVE LONDON 


Another claimant for priority in the 
invention for which the patent rights 
were granted to Alexander Graham 
Bell was Moujeot, a poor and obscure 
Frenchman who has just died near 
Park 

-♦ ♦ ♦ —- 

MACHINE PRODUCES VOWEL 
SOUNDS 


The phonograph reproduces words 
or sounds, but the electric “siren” 
actually produces the vowel sounds. 
An electric motor compresses air in 
imitation of the human 
lungs and the operation 
of a keyboard causes the 
air to pass through the 
artificial mouths and 
lips which are cast from 
plaster of paris. These 
casts are shaped in exact 
imitation of the forms 
the human mouth and 
lips assume when speak¬ 
ing the several vowels. 

In addition to being an interesting 
invention capable of considerable de¬ 
velopment, the siren is used in testing 
the degree of deafness of an impaired 
human ear, as with the machine it is 
possible to register the exact amount 


What is this? Did you never hear 
of the London ambulance 
service? Well, this is it. 
Don't laugh. London 
takes it seriously and is 
very proud of it. Inside 
the “dog kennel” is a 
stretcher on two wheels, 
upon which the victim 
of accident or sudden 
sickness can be jolted off over the 
cobblestones to the nearest hospital, 
enthusiastically accompanied by all the 
'Arries and ; Arriets who can get near 
enough to feast their eyes upon the 


pale, distorted features. London is a 
great town and will have American po¬ 
lice ambulances some day. 

-♦ ♦ ♦ - 

The bristles of any brush are kept in 
place by the tightness of the handle. 





Plaster Cast Mouths for Speaking Vowels 


of pressure required to produce a sound 
which the deaf person can hear. The 

invention is by Dr. Marage, of Paris. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

Some curbstone brokers in New York 
are using wireless receivers instead of 
megaphones to get market quotations. 


Therefore any shrinking of the handle 
loosens the bristles, and it should al¬ 
ways be kept in a moist place. The 
bristles of a paint brush should be im¬ 
mersed in water when not in use, but 
it should never be allowed to stand on 
the bristles; hang it. 
































82 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



I ✓ 

Corridor Car for the Ottoman Railways 


PREVENTS RUST FROM SALT 
WATER 


One of the marine engine builders 
has discovered a process for prevent¬ 
ing rust on the interior of water jack¬ 
ets of gas engines when salt water is 
used for cooling. The preventive is a 
secret chemical preparation which is 
pumped into the jacket under a pres¬ 
sure of 100 lb. One such treatment is 
supposed to make the iron immune to 
saltwater rust. As a test, sal-ammoniac 



Pumping the Chemicals 

was injected and left in 6 weeks, but 
on removal and breaking the casting 
for interior inspection, no sign of rust 
was found. 

The salt water gives little trouble in 
the way of rust as long as it is kept in 
motion, but where it remains unmoved 
for a few hours or days rust sets in 
and when once started increases rap- 
idly. 


GAS MOTOR CARS 


Three-wheeled 
chairs carrying 
two passengers 
and the driver 
are proposed for 
the Boardwalk, 
Atlantic City. It 
combines the 
features of the 
hand-pushed roll¬ 
ing chair and the automobile. Power 
is supplied by a small gas motor. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

CUR NAVY LEADS THE WORLD 


The world’s rapid-fire record has 

passed recently from the British to the 

American navv. The credit for this is 
%/ 

due to Seaman J. L. Davidson, of the 
battleship Ohio, who put 11 consecu¬ 
tive shots from a 6-in. rifle through a 
20 by 15 ft. target at a distance of 
1,600 yds. in 51 seconds. The target 
was bobbing about continually in a 
rough sea. The best British record is 
the same number of hits in 60 seconds. 

The Blue Jacket, an American naval 
publication, has the following by Mar¬ 
garet E. Schmidt in honor of the event: 

England has her Dreadnaughts 
With their deadly 12-inch guns ; 
Germany has battleships 
Of twenty thousand tons ; 

Denmark, France and Italy 

O’er great ships their flags unfurled. 
But Uncle Sam has beaten all— 

Our Navy leads the World. 












































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


83 


OIL FUEL FOR FOG SIGNALS 


Until recently the United States 
Government has used coal for operating 
steam fog signals on the California 
coast. This consumption of coal is an 
important item of expense, even to the 
richest government in the world, for 
one “siren” alone — on the Farallone 
Islands, 25 miles west of San Fran¬ 
cisco—eats up 100 tons a year. It 
has been decided to change the diet 
from coal to crude petroleum, in hopes 
of effecting a large saving of expense, 
so oil plants have been installed at five 
points where there are Government fog 
signals. Two other points are marked 
for the same equipment in a short time, 
if the results of the experiment justify 
further changes. 

-♦- 

DYNAMITE BLAST SAVES SHIP 


Divers Fight for Life With Great Devil Fish 


On March 20 the big steamer “North¬ 
western'’ went ashore on La Touche Is¬ 
land, in Southeastern Alaska. The ves¬ 
sel was jammed in between two large 

hidden rocks, and 
was held fast as if 
in the jaws of a gi¬ 
gantic vise, and all 
usual methods of 
recovery would 
have torn big holes 
in the hull. A loss of $225,000 seemed 
inevitable to the insurance company. 
However, the British Columbia Salvage 
Company took the contract to float the 
great hull. This was finally accom¬ 
plished through the agency of dynamite. 

All the work was done by divers. First 
a survey was made of the submerged 
rocks, and a map prepared. It was then 
decided where to drill the holes for the 
blasts, and considerable time was occu¬ 
pied in this work. The drills were oper¬ 
ated by compressed air, and each hole 
plugged as soon as finished, to keep out 
the sand. When all the holes were ready 
the dangerous operation of filling them 
with dynamite was performed. A much 



Diver Drilling Rock 

greater danger, however, threatened the 
divers at all times. The waters fairly 
swarmed with giant cuttle (devil) fish 
which constantlv attacked the divers, 
who had many narrow escapes. In fact, 
the progress of the work was so slow on 
this account, and as the fear of the div¬ 
ers increased, it was found necessary to 
send them down in pairs. While one 
drilled the other protected him. 

So scientifically was the work planned 
and executed that when the explosion 
occurred the summit of the submarine 
mountains were torn away without in¬ 
jury to the ship. 

-» , ♦ ♦- 

England plans to build another Suez 
canal with British capital only. 






































NEW VEGETABLE SINK 


A new vegetable sink for kitchens has 
three compartments. In one the vege¬ 
tables are washed; in the middle com- 



Three Compartment Sink 


partment they are pared; the third con¬ 
tains clean water into which they are 
tossed until enough are prepared to 
transfer to the cooking utensil. The 
sink is made of porcelain. 

-♦-- 

A WIRELESS DREAM 


Will fast ships speed across the At¬ 
lantic some day, carrying almost no 
machinery, and propelled by wireless 
waves of power generated at Niagara 
Falls? That is the dream of Sir Hugh 
Bell, president of Iron and Steel Insti¬ 
tute, London. Who shall declare it im¬ 
possible in the face of the wonders 
which the new century has already 
seen ? 

-» ■» ♦- 

SEARCHLIGHT FRUSTRATES 
SUICIDE 


A young New York City woman who 
leaped into East river one dark night 
recently and was fast being carried 
toward the terrible rocks of Hell Gate 
was spotted by the searchlight of an 
express transport boat. As the woman’s 
screams rang out, the searchlight was 
played up and down the waters, until 
at last it found and rested upon the 
white upturned face of the girl, who 


had been buoyed up by the skirts of a 
raglan coat she wore. Three men swam 
out from the shore and after a desper¬ 
ate struggle with the swift current 
brought her safely to terra firma. 

•-- 

TICKLESS CLOCK RUNS 400 DAYS 


Primitive man had no need of clocks 
—he lived in the open air, awoke with 
the rising of the sun and went to sleep 
with the birds. 

When more accurate precision was 
needed, he invented the sun dial, and 
that was followed for indoor use by the 
hour glass, and similar contrivances 
worked by water or sand. Wheel clocks 
worked by water followed. There was 
a striking clock in A. D. 807, and a 
large clock erected in London in 1325; 
but it was not till the introduction of 
the pendulum by Huygens about the 
17th century that we got anything ap¬ 
proaching accuracy. 

And now the swinging pendulum 
clock with its regular beats ticking out 

o O 


Courtesy Fisher, London 

Types of 400-Day Clocks 















































































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


85 


the seconds is to become a back num¬ 
ber. In its place is a pendulum which 
turns and returns in a horizontal plane, 
like the hair spring of a watch laid on a 
table, but unlike the watch gives out no 
sound—it is absolutely noiseless. 

And it runs 400 days with one wind- 
in 0, 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

FILLING SWEEPER BROOMS 


The illustration shows how to fill 
street sweeper brooms which have spiral 
grooves the entire length between hubs 
or sprockets in which the hickory fiber 
is fastened by Manila rope. 



Making ® Sweeper Broom 


The broom spindle is placed in the 
frame, and the rope is passed through a 
tension on top bar of frame and at¬ 
tached to spindle. This spindle is con¬ 
nected with a treadle by means of a 
pawl and ratchet. Pressing down on 
the treadle with the foot winds the rope 
on the broom spindle, the material to 
be filled is looped around the rope, 
which is drawn into the grooves. The 
fiber should be dampened to prevent it 
breaking in being looped around the 
rope. 

-♦ ♦ ♦ — 

BEST TEMPERATURE FOR 
STORING FRUIT 


As there are nearly 1,500 cold stor¬ 
age plants in the United States which 
handle fruit of some kind, the best 
preservative temperature is a very prac¬ 
tical question. Some experiments have 
been conducted in Maine from Septem- 



TRAINING FRENCH SEAMEN—In the 
French navy special attention is given to a 
systematic training which is calculated tc 
make the men active and light of move¬ 
ment. The picture shows one of the lessons 
by which the sailors are taught to “man a 
small boat” quickly when a high sea is 
running. 

ber to May, with a view to determining 
the comparative merits of artificial cold 
and cellar storage for fruit, especially 
•apples. The average artificial tempera¬ 
ture was 35°; of the cellar, 42°. 
Whereas all the Baldwins and Spies in 
the cellar had rotted in that time, onlv 
13 per cent of Baldwins and 21 per cent 
of Spies had gone to the bad in the 
artificial cold. 

It was found also that maturity of 
fruit and promptness of storage had 
great influence on length of preserva¬ 
tion. For instance, Spies which were 
stored immediately lost only 21 per cent 
in the same time in which others which 
had lain ten days in barn before storage 
lost 49 per cent. Also firm, ripe apples 
deteriorated only 18 per cent as against 
62 per cent of apples picked two weeks 

later from the same trees. 

-♦—•- ❖- 

To prevent glue cracking add a little 
chloride of calcium, which will absorb 
enough moisture to counteract excessive 
dryness of the glue, 






























This Will Be the Largest Steel Bridge in the World 


PROPOSED HELL GATE BRIDGE 


A railroad bridge, which with its steel 
viaduct approaches will be three miles 
long, may be built over Hell Gate, N. Y. 
It will be the longest and heaviest steel 
bridge in the world, and will require 
80,000 tons of steel. The four tracks 
will be 140 ft., and the top of the arch 
270 ft., above the water. 

- ♦ ♦ ♦- 

YOUNG LADY BUILDS BOILERS 


Chicago has a young lady boiler¬ 
maker, the only one, so far as we know, 
in the country. She is Miss Ruth Kis- 
sack, 19 years of age, and, of course, 
good looking. Her father conducted a 



Courtesy Ideal Power 


Chicago’s Lady Boilermaker 


boiler shop for many years and Miss 
Ruth was his office manager the past 
three years, and for the year during 
her father’s illness superintended the 
shop and had charge of the buying. She 
also learned the practical side of the 
work and can rivet up a boiler with 
pneumatic hammers as well as any of 
the men. Since the death of her father, 
which occurred several months ago, she 
has had entire charge of the business. 
-» ♦ ♦- 

NATURAL HOT WATER HEATING 


People living in the western part of 
Southwestern Dakota are to be congrat¬ 
ulated on having a never-failing supply 
of hot water for heating their houses 
and for other purposes. By drilling ar¬ 
tesian wells they get spouters varying in 
temperature from 100° to 130°, and 
even higher. 

--♦ ♦ ♦- 

INCREASE OF U. S. NAVY 


Tne growth of the “big stick” will be 
watched by the American people with 
various emotions. Part will be elated by 
the fact that the Navy Department will 
soon have 8 new battleships well under 
construction, besides 7 cruisers, 5 de¬ 
stroyers and 4 . submarines. Most of 
these will be ready for service this sum¬ 
mer, and work is being pushed as fast 
as is consistent with thoroughness. 
Other Americans will be pleased to note 
that their country is not yet committed 
to the ruinous race for naval suprem¬ 
acy, in which Prance has 126 war ves¬ 
sels under construction, England 76, 
Germany 43, and Austria 33. 





















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


87 



PIAN J BOX BROODER HOUSE 


Copyrighted, 1907, by Poultry Publishing Co.; 
republished by ^special permission. 

An excellent brooder house for chicks 
hatched in an incubator may be made 
from an upright piano box. The first 
operation is to saw off the top of the 
box diagonally, for proper slant of roof, 
on a line drawn from the division be¬ 
tween upper and lower parts of the 
front, to a point near the top corner at 
the back, which makes the front of the 
piano box the back of the brooder that 
is to be. Then remove lower part of 
front of box and mark with a pencil 
around bottom of box on the inside, 
after which knock off bottom, and saw 
off edge on all four sides. The object of 
this is to bring bottom of box up inside 
the proper height, placed on well nailed 
cleats, to provide for heating apparatus 
underneath. Place hinged windows as 
shown in the cuts. The house will ac¬ 


commodate 100 chicks, but 50 to 75 
will do better. Make the roof and sides 
watertight with tarred paper. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

SUBSTITUTE FOR POSTOFFICE 
TWINE WANTED 


The Postoffice Department would wel¬ 
come some device or inexpensive appli¬ 
ance which could be used as a substitute 
for the jute twine now universally em¬ 
ployed in tying letters in packages. The 
general public would hardly think of 
the amount of this twine required each 
year but it runs into big money. For 
1906-7 the sum of $200,000 was appro¬ 
priated to buy this twine and the fiscal 
year is not yet up and the stock of twine 
is all gone. For the current year 2,000,- 
000 lb. will be used, or 900,000,000 yd. 
The twine can be used only once. Some 
tying device which would hold the let¬ 
ters in bunches for transmission in mail 



Courtwy Motor Boat 


A floating theatre is one of the unusual things in water craft, but can be found on the 
Lower Mississippi river. It is a boat without power and is towed or pushed from town to 
town The company live on the boat, which has an auditorium seating several hundred. 
One-night stands have no terrors for the merry company of sailing players. 






































88 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


pouches and do the work as well as 
twine would bring a fortune to the in¬ 
ventor. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

NEW MILKING MACHINE 


A very simple mechanical milker is 
being used in Europe and reports indi¬ 
cate better results than have been se- 



Simple Mechanical Milker 


cured from any other of the several 
milking machines. It is so simple a 
boy 10 years of age can easily operate it. 
It consists of four pumps which work 
in succession, one after another, and at 
the same speed as a person milking by 
hand. Each pump is connected by a 
short rubber tube to a teat-cup, of which 
there are four. The milk has only a 
short distance to travel and discharges 
directly into the pail to which the ma¬ 
chine is fastened. The operator sits on 
a stool and turns a crank at the rate of 
45 revolutions per minute. The suction 
of any one of the pumps can be in¬ 
creased or decreased by turning a 
thumbscrew which controls the air pass¬ 
age. As soon as one teat is milked the 
suction is cut off and the cup removed, 
while the other pumps continue work¬ 
ing. Where several machines are used 
in one place power through flexible 
shafting (1-10-hp. to each machine) 
may be used. With power one operator 
can superintend several machines. The 


device has been patented in all coun¬ 
tries. 

-♦ - 

BIGGEST DREDGE IN THE U. S. 


It is now at work off the north shore 
of Chicago, sucking up sand and clay 
from the bottom of Lake Michigan and 
passing it along through a 30-in. steel 
pipe to fill in a stretch of shallow shore 
a mile long. This strip has already 
been surrounded by a breakwater, and 
when filled in it will add 242 acres to 
the area of Lincoln Park. The value of 
the new land will be at least $4,000,- 
000. For this extension work $1,000,000 
have been appropriated and the com¬ 
missioners will be able to keep within 
that amount by having their own 
dredge to do the work. Although the 
dredge will cost $148,000, there will 
be a saving of 20 cents a cubic yard 
from the 30 cents bid by private con¬ 
tractors, and when the work is finished 
the machine can be sold for a large 
fraction of what it cost. 

This hydraulic pumping dredge is 
well worth seeing. The hull is steel, 
150 ft. long by 35 ft. wide, and con¬ 
tains engines of more than 1,200 hp. 
From, the bow projects a long steel 
beam, which can be raised or lowered 
and this supports the intake dredging"' 
pipe. At the end of the pipe revolves 



The Big Dredge 






















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


89 


an enormous clay cutter, 7^ ft. across 
and weighing over 5 tons, of which a 
separate view was given in Popular 
Mechanics for June. As this cutter 
bores into the bottom, a powerful tur¬ 
bine in the hold of the boat sucks the 
loosened earth into the pipe and sends 
it out at the stern through a discharge 
pipe as far as may be necessary. The 
outlet pipe is in ioO-ft. sections, con¬ 
nected by heavy rubber joints, and sup¬ 
ported by steel cylinder floats, one on 
each side, and it will deliver a max¬ 
imum of 1,500 cu. yd. per hour. 

At the stern of the boat are two great 
“spuds” to hold it in position. They 
are solid cylinders of wood, 24 ft. in 
diameter and 53 ft. long, each pointed 
with a steel tip weighing 12 tons; they 
can be lowered into the lake bottom 
either singly or together. By dropping 
first one and then the other, and swing¬ 
ing the boat on each alternately as a 
pivot, the dredge at the bow can be 
made to sweep a channel 175 ft. wide. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

A WIPE JOINT MACHINE 


for that purpose. The molten inetal is 
then poured in as in Fig. 3. When cool 
the job is complete as in Fig. 4. 

-♦♦ ♦- 

WASP KILLING SCISSORS 


This unique instrument for killing 
wasps and other undesirable insects 






It does not make any difference if a 
man has had experience or not in wiping 
joints if he uses a wipe joint machine, as 
it can be operated by any¬ 
one of intelligence after 
reading directions. The 
illustrations show the ma¬ 
chine in operation. The 
joints made by the ma¬ 
chine are better than the 
hand-wiped, because the 
soldering metal is used at 
more extreme heat and it 
is a well-known fact that 
the hotter the metal the 
stronger the joint. 

Brass fittings should be 
turned as usual and lead 
pipe scraped before being 
placed in machine. After 
applying the machine 
(Fig. 2) to the parts both should be 
heated with a blow torch on all sides 
until machine is hot enough to melt a 
small piece of solder laid in the trough 


which may enter a house, was the in¬ 
vention of the late Lord De Eos, of 
England. The scissors are made of 


T i — 


a 






m 


wood. The two handles can be whittled 
out of any soft wood, and the 
squeezers glued or tacked in place. 
Fasten handles with a small brass rivet. 



















90 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


HOW THE “VARYAG” WAS 
RAISED 


Remarkable Success of Japanese Naval Engineers 

On February 9, 1904, the fast Rus¬ 
sian cruiser “Varyag,” 6,500 tons, was 
driven from the neutral harbor of Che- 
i lulpo, and after engagement with the 
Japanese fleet was riddled with shot and 
sunk by her commander. For thirty 
months she lay on the bottom, deep in 
mud which partly filled the ship, then 
was brought to the surface and is now 
in service in the navv which sank her. 

The event is extremely interesting as 
the most notable success of its kind, and 


tons of water per hour, were installed on 
big floats over the wreck and connected 
to auxiliary vessels for steam supply. 
On August 8, 1906, an unusually high 
tide was running and the effort was 
made. In a short time the hull had 
reached the surface and repairs were 
made to hull and machinery which per¬ 
mitted the extraordinary feat of sailing 
to a Japanese port under its own steam 
and power. 

In the work were engaged, in addition 
to the officers and divers, about 300 Jap¬ 
anese naval mechanics and as many Ko¬ 
rean helpers. The cost, including the. 
three big pumps, was about $500,000 
Had the same methods been adopted : t 



“Jets of Water Dug ojt a Sort of Ditch” 


accomplished under difficulties which 
were pronounced impossible to over¬ 
come. Not only was the hull nearly 
buried in mud, but a 5-knot an hour cur¬ 
rent made the work of the divers slow 
and dangerous. Two months were spent 
in uncovering and stripping the wreck 
of as much armament as possible. The 
hull lay on one side, with the keel on a 
horizontal, and the first steps were to 
turn the ship over and bring it on its 
keel. This was done with jets of water 
forced under one side, which dug out a 
sort of ditch into which the hull gradu¬ 
ally slid until at last it was in a vertical 
position. The big guns were then hoist¬ 
ed. Usual methods of closing the holes 
failed and a shell or outer vessel inclos¬ 
ing the wreck had to be constructed to 
completely envelop it. Three large 
pumps, built in Japan for the special 
purpose and capable of pumping 3,600 


would seem that the raising of the 
“Maine'’ would have been a-task easy in 
comparison to the recovery of the 
“Varyag.” 

-♦- 

ACID=PROOF PIPES 


Iron pipes lined with lead or tin are 
made for the transmission of acids 
which would quickly destroy unpro¬ 
tected iron. These pipes are made up 
to large sizes; one copper smelting com¬ 
pany, for instance, has 30,000 ft. of 
10-in. pipe lined with lead which has 

been in use 12 vears. 

*> 


Never let any soap-suds fall upon 
your eye-glasses — one drop will ruin 
them. The caustic alkali will make the 
glass iridescent. 


























































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


91 


PEARLING AND PEARL-DIVERS OF TODAY 


How Men Walk the Sea Floor in Search of Huge Shells with Costly Gems 


By William George Fitz=Gerald 



» 

Steam Lugger—Pearl Diver Coming Up 


Pearl-diving suggests to our mind 
much that is romantic; but the era of 
naked divers, in dire peril from sharks, 
has passed away; and modern progress 
now equips the pearler with a fearsome- 
looking suit of India rubber, glistening 
copper breastplates, with great leaden 
weights back and front, and lastly an 
uncanny-looking helmet, glass-paneled 
and with elaborate telephonic attach¬ 
ments; air-pipes, life-lines and a power¬ 
ful submarine searchlight, carried on 
steam luggers. ' 

Thus equipped the pearl-diver of to¬ 
day may spend six or eight hours at the 
bottom of the sea, whereas in olden 
times three minutes made a record. Al¬ 
though pearls are found in nearly all 
molluscs, and even in univalves like the 
Australian Haliotis—a kind of barna¬ 
cle—true pearls are only produced by 
the pearl oyster, or mother-of-pearl 
shell. And, by the way, the commercial 
“M. 0. P.” shell is really the diver’s 
bread and butter. They are as big as an 
ordinary dinner plate and weigh 2 lb. 
when cleaned. These fetch from $500 
to $750 a ton in the market and all the 
world knows that mother-of-pearl is a 
staple commodity of trade, 


The pearl-fishers are aware that shells 
infested with living parasites are most 
likely to yield fine gems. The ancient 
fisheries were chiefly in the Indian 
Ocean and Persian Gulf; but nowadays 
the loveliest and most perfect pearls 
come from Ceylon, and above all Aus¬ 
tralian waters — especially Torres 
Straits and in various little-known 
spots in the remote Arafura Sea. 

Pearl-fishing in Ceylon is a govern¬ 
ment monopoly, controlled and directed 
bv officials; and in the month of March 
the fleet starts for the pearling grounds, 
each vessel with 20 or 30 divers and 
their assistants. But you will find the 
headquarters of pearling in the desolate 
country extending from Exmouth Gulf 
to King Sound, in Western Australia. 
A glistening white coastline is this, 
whose monotony is broken only by 
mangoe-fringed salt-water creeks and 
scorching deserts of spinifex and sand. 

Here, then, we have 600 odd miles of 
coastline with perhaps 5,000 hardy ad¬ 
venturers engaged in the pearl trade. 
There are besides some thousands of 
Japanese, Manila men, Malays and men 
of other races, acting chiefly as crews 
for the little ships which so often run 







02 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



Drilling a Pearl 

on uncharted rocks in those far-off and 
little known seas. The vessels are 
schooner-rigged and from 7 to 14 tons 
burden. Each carries a master diver 
and a crew of four, one of whom offi¬ 
ciates as the diver’s-assistant and works 
the cvlinders and cranks of the air- 
pumps that supply him with air while 
he is below. Meanwhile the lugger drifts 
with wind or tide while busy gloved 
hands are groping for the huge shells 
amid great swaying, many-colored for¬ 
ests, 20 fathoms down in the tropical 
sea. 

One man above holds the life-line and 
pays attention to signals; another is 
catching fish or peeling potatoes for the 
dinner; and it may be a third has gone 
off in the dinghy for fresh water and 
firewood. The shells are found on ledges 
about 90 ft. down in the sea, but it is 
common knowledge that they are far 
more plentiful at greater depths. Vast 
fortunes await the inventors of a diving 
apparatus which will enable the pearler 
to work in comfort at 100 fathoms deep. 
It should be borne in mind that even at 
200 ft. the diver endures a pressure of 
88 lb. on every square inch of his body ! 

The lugger has a dangerously low 
free-board to allow of the diver, with 
his heavy dress and gear, being easily 
hauled on board. He carries a net with 
him holding the shells, and when this is 
full he has it hauled up so that he him¬ 
self may ruq no risk of entangling life¬ 


line or air-pipe. You could not imagine 
an environment more weird than that 
in which the fully-dressed pearler works 
at, say, 20 fathoms. He moves airily, 
notwithstanding his 40-lb. boots, amid 
groves of coral trees, interlaced with 
fluttering fern-like plants, among whose 
branches swim gorgeous tropical fish 
and sinister water-snakes, who seem to 
resent the intrusion of so strange a 
monster. 

A good day’s work is anything over 
200 pairs of shells, although I have 
known as many as 1,000 picked up in 
that time. The business, as may be sup¬ 
posed, is absolutely speculative. One 
diver may open ton after ton of shells 
without securing anything of greater 
value than a few seed pearls, while an¬ 
other may take a fortune out of a day’s 
gathering. The most famous pearl dis¬ 
covered in Australia of late vears is 
that known as the “Southern Cross.” It 
consists of a cluster of nine superb 
pearls in the shape of a small crucifix, 
almost perfect in proportion. This curi¬ 
ous freak of nature was picked up at 
low water on the Lacipede Islands by a 
‘‘beach-comber” named Clark, who, 
after burying it for some time for su¬ 
perstitious reasons sold it for $50; it 
fetched $50,000. 

The pearl diver of today, protected as 
he is by every device known to modern 
submarine engineering, is liable to 
many perils. He may lose his life by 
the ripping or tearing of his dress upon 
the sharp coral rocks through which he 
picks his way. Then, should an accident 
happen in the lugger above, his air sup¬ 
ply may stop, in which case he is suffo¬ 
cated; a crew of Malays, by the way, 
can never be depended upon. Therefore, 
you may be sure the man below has an 
uncanny feeling sometimes, a feeling 
of utter loneliness and helplessness 
causing him to start sharply at the sud¬ 
den appearance of a dark mass of rocks, 
or the unexpected touch of a clammy 
sea-finger. 

He finds himself far from human 
aid—out of the world, as it were, where 
every form and creature is different 
from those on earth. Nor is his occupa- 







encyclopedia 


93 


tion healthy. It predisposes to deafness 
and rheumatism and may affect the 
lungs and heart. The worst enemy the 
Australian pearl-divers have, however, 
are the terrible cyclones that annually 
visit the coast. As to sharks, they rarely 
attack a diver in modern dress, and he 
can always frighten them off when they 
persist in following him by letting a 
few air bubbles out of his dress. Other 
enemies are the black and yellow sea- 
snakes, the smaller octopus, the stingray 
and the blow-fish. 

After a day’s take of shell has been 
conveyed ashore the shell-opener gets to 
work at once. The pay of these men 
equals $30 a month plus 10 per cent on 
the value of the pearls found. Some 
idea of the magnitude of the industry 
may be realized on learning that last 
vear 520 luggers paid an annual $5 
license to engage in the trade, and they 
took many thousands of tons of pearl 
shell; the customs duties in the tiny 
pearl town of Broome exceeded $5,000 
a month. 

The treasury authorities of Western 
Australia estimate they receive at least 
$100,000 a year in dues from the pearl¬ 
ers. But of course the industry is 
enormously profitable and hardly a 
month passes without the discovery of 
these “tear drops of the 006311 " having a 
market value of from $5,000 to $15,- 
000 each, and sometimes much more. 
Thus a beautiful pink pear-shaped 
specimen weighing 206 grains was 
found last season and sold for $80,000. 

Before setting, pearls are classified 
according to size on a setting board; 
and the delicate work of drilling a val¬ 
uable specimen is invariably done by an 
old-fashioned hand apparatus. More¬ 
over, no matter how valuable a set of 
pearls may be, they are invariably 
strung on fine silk thread. One extraor¬ 
dinary fact is that unless pearls are 
worn they will pine away and die. Thus, 
in the Louvre Museum in Paris at this 
moment you will see a superb pearl 
necklace on its death-bed! 

To be precise, it lies on a velvet cush¬ 
ion. This is the famous necklace left by 
M. Thiers, diplomat and statesman; it 



The Pearls Are Strung on Silk 

formerly belonged to his wife, and was 
once worth $300,000. It consists of 
145 pearls in three rows, weighing alto¬ 
gether 2,907 grains. The once lovely 
gems, however, are fast losing their lus¬ 
ter, and in a decade or two will turn 
jet black and become quite valueless. 
The authorities in the Louvre view the 
matter with grave concern; but they 
are well aware that little can be done 
unless the decay of the gems can be ar¬ 
rested by their being worn on warm 
human skin, so - sensitive are thev to 
change of temperature. 

-» ♦ 4- 

CAN’T CHANGE BOAT’S NAME 
AFTER 20 YEARS 


After 20 years the name of a vessel 
registered in this country cannot be 
changed unless it be rebuilt at a cost 
of at least one-half the original cost. 

A navigation company on the Great 
Lakes is in an unusual predicament. 
It recently put on a new steamer 
named “City of Cleveland.” The com¬ 
pany has an old steamer of the same 
name which they changed to “City of 
St. Ignace,” only to find to their sur¬ 
prise that they had collided with a 
Government regulation which forbids 
the name of a vessel to be changed after 
being carried longer than 20 years, and 
the older boat was named in 1886. 










94 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



■PI ill lli . 1 , III 










PPBS 




S^s&fw 

v^'V'^L 


O OOB. 

*21 

° * T N o n -r h u n M . a c> t » n . 

L_• m ! 



TYPES OF ENGLISH CARS.—The above illustrations are selected from a large num¬ 
ber of views used by the president of the English Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 
his annual address. The first is a two-car Irish train which operates with the locomotive 
between the cars. The second is a standard ore and coal dump car. Next is a car for 
transporting large steel girders of 40 tons. The dining car is 65 ft. long and weighs 39 
tons; The two lower views show the interior of the Queen’s private car. 

























































encyclopedia 


95 


A STRONG THIN PARTITION 


In buildings where space is so valu¬ 
able that every square inch is worth 
many dollars, very thin partitions 
which are at the same time strong, im¬ 
pervious and fireproof are* at a pre¬ 
mium. Such partitions are now built 
only 1J in. thick, yet amply strong 
enough for all ordinary uses. Of 


Crete wall. This makes a partition not 
only thin but solid and impervious to 
ordinary sounds. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

ELECTRIC BRICK HOISTING 
CRANE 


Brick and canals suggest ancient his¬ 
tory, and electric power stands as the 



Electric Crane Lifts a Wagon Load at a Time 


course they do not carry doors or win¬ 
dows. 

Small I-beams of steel about 1 in. 
in width are used for the studding, to 
which is wired the metal lath. These 
I-beams are set about 14 in. apart and 
can be of any length suitable for the 
height of the room. In the illustration 
Fig. 1 shows a partition in cross sec¬ 
tion as it appears with plaster pushed 
through the meshes in the metal lath. 








Fig. I 




Fig. 2 


In Fig. 2 is shown the plaster on both 
sides of a partition and how the plaster 
interlocks between the metal lath and 
forms what is practically a solid con- 


crowning genius of the new century; 
all three are linked together in one of 
the large industries of Germany. 

The brick yards of Berlin are situated 
along canals not many miles out from 
the city, says the Western Electrician, 
and the transportation of the brick by 
water is found least expensive. The 
brick are loaded into steel crates holding 
1,500 each, which are loaded into canal 
boats using storage batteries for power 
supply. Each crate is a wagon load and 
each boat holds forty crates. When the 
boat reaches the city dock, a great elec¬ 
tric crane reaches down and lifts a crate 
with its 1,500 bricks up and out and sets 
it down on a wagon on which it is carted 
to the place where the brick are wanted. 
Could anything be quicker or simpler? 
The entire boat load is taken out in less 
than three hours. 




























AN ELECTRIC BLUEPRINTING 
MACHINE 


Where a number of small prints of 
the same size are made from tracings 
during cloudy days and winter condi¬ 
tions it is a long and tedious job. Usu¬ 
ally such prints can be made in 8 by 



around the arbor; in this drum are 10 
apertures the size of the inner face of 
the printing frames, says Engineering 
News. A rabbeted extension at the bot¬ 
tom holds the lower part of the print¬ 
ing frame while a brass spring engages 
and holds the top of same, as shown in 
accompanying illustrations. 

Fitting on to the lower drum is a 
similar one with receding sides, but 
without the extension and the springs, 
as the frames remain fixed on account 
of their position. 

This makes provision for 20 frames 
and each one is equal distance and at 
the same angle from the lamp, which 
is suspended and projects down through 
a hole in the upper drum and is cen¬ 
tered by means of a plummet over the 
center of the arbor on the top of the tri¬ 
pods. The distance from the center of 
the flame to the center of the glass in 
the printing frame is 22 in. 

The lamp may be of the ordinary di¬ 
rect-current arc light with enclosed 
clear glass globe. 

-♦ — » ♦- 


Electric Blueprinter 

10-in. irames, such as are used by pho¬ 
tographers. 

Mounted upon a tripod, having an 
arbor at its apex, is a 10-sided drum 
with flaring sides, having a hub with 
wooden rolls, upon* which it revolves 


Rust may be removed from iron or 
steel utensils in many ways. If recent, 
rub with an oil-soaked cork; or, rub 
with oil of tartar or with very fine 
emery and a little oil, or with strong 
alum and vinegar, or soak in turpentine 
or kerosene over night and clean with 
very fine emery cloth. 





Upper Section 


|| ’/ 

Roller Bearings 


Lower Section. 


l \ Sheet 
X'-Jr on Washer 


.Stand 



























































































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


97 



Icebergs are a drug on the market in 
Alaska—that is, in the winter time, 
when 40 degrees below is a mild day; 
hut one of the strange perversities of na¬ 
ture is to burn and blister with a hot 
sun during the few weeks of Arctic sum¬ 


mer. Juneau and one hundred other en¬ 
terprising Alaskan cities now have well- 
equipped cold storage warehouses, better 
than most towns of equal size down in 
“the states,” but there was a time when 
ice could not be had even in Alaska. It 
was during the second year of the Klon¬ 
dike fever and the Cold Storage and 
Ice Trade Journal relates the unusual 
manner in which a supply was found. 

Berney Moran was certainly versatile. 
He had been a newspaper writer, track¬ 
layer, section foreman, street-corner 
preacher, miner, walking delegate and 
a dozen other things. He rejoiced in 
the nickname of “Casey,” and is now a 
wealthy mine owner. When Moran land¬ 
ed in Juneau he had a dollar bill and a 
thirst; the latter he-proceeded to trade 
off for the former. 

The beer was served 
almost warm. 

“Where's your 
ice?” asked Moran. 

“We ain't no 
fancy dudes,” was 
the frontier answer. 

“We never have no 
ice here in summer. 

You’d better drink 
your drink without 
ice or noise 

u 





*Casv.y” Moran 


Say,” asked Mo¬ 
ran, “what will you 
give me for a constant supply of the 
best ice you want all this summer. 

They dickered and came to an agree¬ 
ment, and Moran then visited the dif¬ 
ferent saloons and markets and stores 


selling perishable goods, and made an 
arrangement with the majority of them 
to supply the summer’s ice, an arrange¬ 
ment which few, if any, deemed he could 
keep. 

Moran next hired a tug—on credit. 
He also hired an old warehouse on the 
shore. With a crew of two and himself 
and with a cargo of ropes, cables and 
anchors, he left the port and proceeded 
to sea. 

Two days after the entire town of 
Juneau was down on the shore. A tug 
boat was approaching with a tow the 
like of which no tug boat ever had be¬ 
fore. Fastened by a series of cables, 
ropes and anchors to the tug, and a hun¬ 
dred yards or so behind it, was a gi¬ 
gantic iceberg. On the berg Moran had 
sunk posts and fastened anchors, and 
finally managed to get a good towing 
grip. He gradually towed the moun¬ 
tain, composed of the most beautiful 
and clearest ice in the world, into the 
harbor, and stranded it in the deep 
water not more than fifty yards from his 
ice house. 

Next day, in letters 10 ft. long, the 
following sign appeared on the old ware¬ 
house, thus establishing the first ice and 
cold storage business north of Fifty- 
three : 

CASEY MORAN, 

ICE 

BY THE TOUND, TON OR BERG. 

- ♦—♦ - 

A young lady in street costume made 
a balloon ascent at Belleville, N. J., 
recently, because she wouldn’t take a 
dare. At a height of 1,300 ft., hav¬ 
ing crossed a river in the flight, she 
dropped with the aid of a parachute 
and landed safely. Then she fainted. 

- » ♦ ♦ - 

Deposits of meerschaum have been 
found in New Mexico. 




















98 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 




NEW SUBURBAN LOCOMOTIVE 


A new type of suburban locomotive 
for light trains on short runs is being 
built in England for use on the London 
& Southwestern Railway. It is mounted 
on four 3-ft. drivers, has no tender, is 



English Tank Locomotive 


19 ft. long, and weighs 24 tons with 
500 gal. water and 1 ton of coal. 

On the top of the cab are two pul¬ 
leys through which ropes pass from 
the throttle to the coach. When only 
one car is drawn the crew consists of 
two men, the engineer and conductor, 
and when the train is running car first 
the conductor can stop or start by work¬ 
ing the ropes. The engineer does his 
own firing. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

WILL COMPRESSED AIR STOP 
WAVES? 


Instead of casting oil on troubled 
waters, it is proposed now to break 
them up with compressed air. Theo¬ 
retically it seems feasible. A wave is 

n—. . .—— 



most dangerous at the instant it breaks, 
releasing tons of water, it may be, to 
fall from a height of many feet with 
crushing force. If, then, the wave can 
be broken up before it strikes, it is 
rendered practically harmless. It is * 
proposed to do this by running out a 
pipe with many minute holes at the 
end, through which air may be pumped 
under water to protect a breakwater, a 
helpless ship, or a light-ship. So far 
the only practical application of the 
theory which can be cited is the alleged 
effect of the compressed air rising to 
the surface of the Hudson river after 
escaping from the tunnel beneath. It 
is claimed that this breaks up all the 
waves in the vicinity. But that is far 
from conclusive, and it remains to be 
demonstrated that compressed air, 
apart from the question of expense, will 
be any more effective than a few cents 

worth of petroleum. 

-♦ ♦ ♦ —— 

STREET CARS WITH TWO ROOFS 


Street cars are now being built with 
a double roof—the upper one an inch 
above the other and projecting 8 in. on 
either side. The purpose is to prevent 
leaking when cars are kept out of doors 



Courtesy Elec. Traction Weekly 

Watertight Roof 

for want of storage room. The double 
roof also reduces the humming noise of 
the trolley wheel. 

-♦ ♦♦- 

It is not generally known by retail 
pipe dealers or by many users of pipe 
that any size of standard wrought iron 
welded pipe above 1^ in. will just fit 
in the next size larger. This is so up 
until 6-in. is reached, when the sizes 
are made only in full inch numbers; 
that is, they jump from 5 to 6 and 
from 6 to 7, etc. 




Pipe Has Minute Holes 







































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


99 


HOW YOUNG MEN ARE TRAINED FOR THE AMERI¬ 
CAN NAVY 



Fig. 4.—Physical Inspection. 





















100 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


GOLD DREDGING IN THE DESERT 


Gold-hunger has drawn 
men everywhere except, 
perhaps, to the shifting 
sands of the Mojave des¬ 
ert. But now a mining 
company, recently organ¬ 
ized in the southern part 
of California, proposes to 
dredge the dry bed of a 
prehistoric Mojave river 
for the precious yellow 
grains. 

There is nothing new 
in the idea, for mining 
experts have long de¬ 
clared that the sands of 
the Mojave were well 
salted with gold; but how 
to get it? Now that problem has been 
solved by the drilling of several ar¬ 
tesian wells whose overflow, after be¬ 
ing pumped four miles, will be amply 
sufficient for dredging purposes. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

16=HP. FROM A 54-LB. ENGINE 


is two cycle, starts absolutely with¬ 
out fuel after half a turn, and runs 


Dredging in a Desert 

without any carbureter. The spark coil 
contains, instead of the usual two wind¬ 
ings of wire, six windings, of which the 
last five are looped in series with a bat¬ 
tery of condensers. The lubricating 
oil is injected along with the gas mix¬ 
ture. 




The automobile and the flying-ma¬ 
chine are developing marvels in the 
line of engine construction. The lat¬ 
est wonder is 16 hp. which a man can 
lift with one hand. Ordinarily such 
power requires an engine of 300 to 
1,000 lb., but this was devised as the 
motor of a new balloon, and it is so 
powerful that the chief concern of the 
inventor is to fasten it firmly enough to 
the frame of the airship to prevent its 
tearing loose. The design of this little 
giant is original in many respects. It 


Seamanship Work on a Land Mast—U. S. Naval Training Station 

















■ 




“The Car Maintains Its Balance Whether Standing Still or Moving’* 

101 ■ 















102 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


CARS BALANCED ON SINGLE RAIL 


Travel at 150 Miles an Hour—Predicted Greatest Mechanical Sensation in Years 


Louis Brennan, an English inventor, 
has astounded the scientific experts 
with his demonstration before the 
Royal Society. Brennan is no ordinary 
dreamer, for the British government 
paid him $550,000 for his patent tor¬ 
pedo, and is now spending $25,000 



building a monorail car 12 ft. wide, 
under the direction of the war depart¬ 
ment. Indeed the inventor predicts the 
railway car of the future will be several 
times as wide as now, and two or three 
stories high. It will travel upon a 
single rail, and cross rivers on a single 
steel cable if conditions do not favor 
the use of piles or piers. The propel¬ 
ling power may be steam, electricity or 
gasoline. If Brennan’s expectations are 
realized his system will revolutionize 
the operation of railways throughout 
the world. 

Monorail systems are not new, but 
heretofore the cars have either been sus¬ 
pended, or held in poise by guide wheels 
on each side of the carrying rail. 

The secret of the Brennan system is 
the use of a gyroscope within each car. 
He has studied this mysterious piece of 
mechanism for 30 years, and is said to 

be one of onlv three men in the world 

*/■ 

who really understand it. He says: 

“The characteristic feature of the 
system of transportation is that each 
vehicle is capable of maintaining its 
balance upon an ordinary rail laid upon 
ties on the ground, whether it be stand¬ 
ing still or moving in either direction 


at any rate of speed, notwithstanding 
the center of gravity is several feet 
above the rail and the wind pressure, 
a shifting load, centrifugal action, or 
any combination of these forces may 
tend to upset it. 

“Automatic stability mechanism of 
extreme simplicity, carried by the ve¬ 
hicle itself, endows it with this power. 
The mechanism consists essentially of 
two flywheels rotated directly by elec¬ 
tric motors in opposite directions at a 
high velocity, mounted so that by their 
gyrostatic action their stored up energy 
can be utilized. These flywheels mount¬ 
ed on high-class bearings are placed in 
air exhausted cases, so both air and 
journal friction is reduced to a mini¬ 
mum, consequently the power required 
to keep them in rapid motion is ex¬ 
tremely small. 

“The wheels are placed in a single 
row beneath the center of the car and 
are carried on bogies or compound bo¬ 
gies, which are not only pivoted to pro¬ 
vide for horizontal curves in the track 
but for vertical ones also. By this 
means the cars can run upon curves 
even of less radius than the length of 
the vehicle itself, or on crooked rails, 
or on rails laid over uneven ground 
without danger of derailment. 

“The motive power may be either 
steam, petrol, oil, gas, or electricity. I 
use petrol (gasoline) and an electric 
generating set carried by the vehicle 
itself to supply the current to the mo¬ 
tor’s stability mechanism. 



Crossing a Chasm 







































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


103 



- - jf?-FnT t^-thL V^Xapg miiminir 

:W/'V T 

’ f ■'. •; fiJHR 

*- " t'oryj- ■ ffidi maal 

. r - ,.. y ./|IIIP ^ ^ 


iwdi 

safe 


maiis 


Hand vvKeel. 
for Brake 
Pneumah'c 
' Brake Culinder 


k&f *?-Driving 

U!Hjk;'Moic>r 


i.lirrier 


Stability 

Apparatus 


saear- .. 
: -caae- 


Gear-case y 
.Wheel tinverC 


■lyen tg 


'vV'Kei coupled 




Whed coi.id 


'Mffcfor rirnt/iPa 



\-1 

fl] p 

11_ adj 




1. The active principle of the Brennan car: The Gyroscope in its simplest form, as it is 
sold for a toy—“The top that can’t be knocked over.” 2. The vehicle on the part of the 
track representing a mountainous district, showing the way in which it leans automatically 
towards the center in rounding a curve. 3. The vehicle on level ground, showing the way 
in which it leans automatically away from the heavier side when it is unevenly loaded. 
4. The inventor at home. 5. A Blondin feat: The car crossing an iron hawser in the 6-ft. 
working model in Mr. Brennan’s grounds, 5 ft. from the ground and keeping perfect 
balance. 6. The model car carrying a 150-lb. man. 7. The Brennan gyroscope. 8. Mr. 
Brennan’s idea of travel in the future: A monorail vehicle very much larger and wider than 
present-day railway carriages. 9. Detail of the car. 


“Everything points to a great econ¬ 
omy resulting from making the cars 
wider in proportion to their length than 
on ordinary railways. Therefore it has 
been decided to make an experimental 


coach 12 ft. wide. Brakes capable of 
being operated by pneumatic or manual 
power are provided for all wheels. 

“The rail only requires to be of the 
same weight as one of the rails of an 



















































104 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


ordinary line in order to carry the same 
load on the same number of wheels in 
each case. The ties also only require 
to be one-half the usual length. 

“The bridges would be of the sim¬ 
plest possible construction, a single 
wire hawser stretched across a ravine 
or river being all that is necessary for 
temporary work. Strange to say, the 
lateral swaying of the hawser does not 
disturb the balance of the cars, and the 
strongest winds will fail to blow them 
off. In other cases for bridge building 
a single row of piles with the rail on 
top suffices, or a single girder carrying 
the rail may be conveniently used. 

“The speed can be from twice to 
thrice that of ordinary railways, owing 
to the smoothness in running and the 
total absence of lateral oscillation.” 

Sir Hiram Maxim, while admitting 
the success of the demonstration, pro¬ 
nounces the apparatus “a highly scien¬ 
tific toy,” but does not believe the same 
results will follow when the system is 
applied to actual practice with standard 
size cars operating out of doors, and 
states: 

“I think his plan to keep the car¬ 
riages from tipping by the action of 
the gyroscope will be beset with a great 
many difficult problems, so difficult, in 
fact, as to make the whole scheme ab¬ 
solutely impracticable. 

“It is quite safe to say that if Bren¬ 
nan’s trains were running east or west 
and there was a strong wind from the 
north, the wind would exert consider¬ 
able force on the train in the same di¬ 
rection, and I think that, under these 
conditions, the plane of the gyroscope 
would gradually yield, capsizing the 
train. 

“No doubt there is nothing in the 
world so much of a mechanical paradox 
as the gyroscope. Perhaps I can best 
illustrate the construction, 30 years 
ago, by Sir Henry Bessemer of a ship 
with its cabins fitted with gymbals. He 
proposed to keep the ship in a horizon¬ 
tal position by the use of large gyro¬ 
scopes. They had no effect at all in 
steadying the craft.” 

On the other hand Brennan operated 


his small car with one side greatly over¬ 
loaded, and claims that in proportion 
to size of car and its unbalanced load, 
any wind pressure short of a hurricane 
would be no more severe test to a car 
of ordinary size. What' can be done 
under actual working conditions will 
remain a question until the government 
makes the test. Until then the subject 
will continue to be one of absorbing in¬ 
terest to engineers and scientists, some 
of whom pronounce the invention the 
“greatest since the electric motor.” 

-♦-- 

CANTEENS AS LIFE PRESERVERS 


A novel use of the canteen is to em¬ 
ploy it as a life buoy or as an aid in 
learning to swim. The accompanying 
sketch shows the position of the can¬ 
teen as it should be used. Whether 
there is one canteen or two, the idea is 
practically the same. Snap the canteen 
strap to the belt buckle and fasten the 


Emergency Life Buoy 

canteens upon the breast so that they 
cannot slip out of place, says the Jour¬ 
nal of the American Cavalry Associa¬ 
tion. This may be accomplished by 
fastening a string or handkerchief to 
the side rings of the canteens, and then 
passing it around the neck. For still 
greater security, pass a cord around 
the body and fasten it to the outside 
rings. 

-♦ — ♦- 

By the end of the year trolley lines 
will connect Chicago and St. Louis, 
and it is planned to extend the road 
to Kansas City. 














ENCYCLOPEDIA 


105 


BERTILLON’S NEW SYSTEM OF PHOTOGRAPHING THE DEAD 



Former Way Bertillon Photo 

A CONCRETE SAFE 


M. Bertillon, whose 
svstem of identification 
of criminals has been 
adopted in all parts of 
the world, has just in¬ 
vented a new form of 
photographic apparatus. 

It is used in making 
photographs of the 
dead. The result of 
the present method of 
taking the picture of a 
dead person is shown in 
Fig. 1, and the greatly 
improved result with 
the new apparatus is 
seen in Fig 2. The 
body is laid on a plat¬ 
form on which are 
drawn the basic lines of the Bertillon 
system of measurement, and these lines 
are preserved in the photograph. 

The camera is suspended directly 
over the subject, but other pictures are 
also made from the floor with another 
camera, giving a variety of positions. 
The chances of identification are very 
greatly increased by means of the new 
method. 



The Vertical Camera 


If concrete safes come into general 
use the owner will find it cheaper to 
build a new one than to move the old 
safe; and safes can be had in all sorts 
of inaccessible places by carrying a 



few r small bags of sand and cement and 
building the safe from the materials. 
The concrete safe is not burglar proof, 
neither is the average steel safe, but it 
is suffieientlv strong for all ordinarv 
requirements against theft and fire. 
The concrete safe illustrated was 


4 






















106 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


made in Seattle by a concrete building 
constructor. The Concrete Age says 
the safe is 2 ft. 4 in. square and 3 ft. 
high. Walls and doors are 4 in. thick, 
reinforced with ^-in. twisted steel, with 
the lock and hinges, cast in the center 
of wall and door. The handle and cas¬ 
tors were also cast in place. The con¬ 
struction is not specially difficult—any¬ 
one handy with tools can make one, 
and the iron parts can all be pur¬ 
chased and are comparatively inexpen¬ 
sive. A few dollars and a little in¬ 
teresting work will provide a good, 
durable, substantial safe. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

NEW SENSATION COMING 


The amusement loving public, which 
each year demand some new sensation, 
are likely to get it in plenty when the 
Avernus wheel, now building, is com¬ 
pleted. It gives all the exhilarating 
features of the most reckless roller 


coaster but is much safer. The machine 
carries two wheels on the same axle, 
and on each wheel runs a car which can 
hold 20 people. The speed can be regu¬ 
lated, and the most wonderful varieties 
of motion can be obtained. The ma¬ 
chine is an English invention. 

--- 

ENFORCED BURIAL AT SEA 


The enforced burial at sea of Mrs. 
Chalmers Prentice of Chicago by an 
Italian Commissioner aboard the “Koe- 
nigin Luise” of the North German 
Lloyd Steamship Company on April 27 
has resulted in a suit for $250,000 
damages against the company, who 
have taken the matter up with the 
Italian government in the hope of pre¬ 
venting future occurrences of the kind. 
Mrs. Prentice had been traveling first- 
class and every-necessity for embalm¬ 
ing the body was at the disposal of the 
ship’s physician, but no appeal availed 
against the Italian’s arbitrary decree. 



You Hold Fast While the Car Plunges Like a Wild Broncho 









ENCYCLOPEDIA 


107 



TRAVELING BLACKSMITH SHOP 


The Minneapolis fire department pos¬ 
sesses a valuable adjunct which has re¬ 
ceived the tribute of imitation by other 
cities. It "is a device for saving time 
and money by bringing the blacksmith 
to the horse instead of the horse to the 
blacksmith. As the department has 180 
horses, each of which should be avail¬ 
able at a moment’s notice, day and 
night, the importance of such saving is 
obvious. There is a further economy 
in having the shoeing done by city em¬ 


ployes instead of by outside smiths. 
The device is a wagon built and de¬ 
signed under the supervision of Chief 
Engineer Canterbury, which is fitted up 
with all the tools and apparatus for 
horseshoeing, including forge, rotary 
blower, anvil and vise. The two side 
springs seen in the cut, under the front 
platform, have five leaves and are 40 in. 
long, the cross spring has six leaves and 
is 38 in. long. The front wheels are 
30 in., and the rear 48 in. In order 



The Blacksmith Comes to the Fire Department Horse 





































108 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


that there may be no possible crippling 
of the service while a horse is being 
shod, the horse which draws the black¬ 
smith wagon is put temporarily in the 
place of the one which is trying on his 
new shoes. 

-»--»-♦- 

FRONT OF 8=STORY BUILDING 
FALLS OUT 


A very unusual accident occurred to 
an 8-story brick business building on 
Wabash Ave., Chicago. The building 
had been remodeled and filled with 
goods by a furniture concern. About 
3 a. m. the entire front fell out, block¬ 
ing traffic on surface and elevated roads 
for several hours. The only persons in 
danger were two cabmen who heard the 



building crack and drove out of the way 
just in time to escape death. 

- ♦» ♦- 

PARIS PRINTS PAPERS WITH 
AUTOMOBILES 


Electric power is used to a very large 
extent in Paris, the newspapers de¬ 
pending almost entirely on it to operate 



Traction Engine Furnishing Power 


their typesetting machines and presses. 
When the recent strike in the power 
houses occurred there Avas not only 
darkness in the cafes, where candles 
stuck in wine bottles were improvised 
for lights, but the daily papers came to 
a sudden stop. The resourceful French 
mind, however, instantly conceived the 
best thing to do, and automobiles of 
large horsepower were at once secured 
and used to furnish power for driving 
temporary generators placed on the 
sidewalk or in the street. In one case 
a motor car was actually carried up 
into a composing room and used to run 
the typesetting machines by belt drive. 
Traction engines were also employed; 
one of these is shown in front of the 
daily Journal, driving a generator 
which rests on a motor truck. 

- ♦ —• ♦- 

A Wisconsin farmer boasts a mahog¬ 
any sidewalk, built from barrels in 
which he received goods shipped from 
the West Indies, 


“The Entire Front Fell Out” 




























encyclopedia 


109 


TREATMENT INSTEAD OF 
DRUGS 

Patients Climb Stairs and Kick Indian 

Clubs 

In many cases of nervous trouble the 
patients are now given mechanical ex¬ 
ercises instead of drugs. (Jne piece of 
apparatus is a stairway on which have 
been cut grooves for the feet of the in¬ 
dividual who is condemned by fate and 
the physicians to tread the steps of this 
treadmill. This stairwav, intended to 
bring back to those afflicted with loco¬ 
motor ataxia the lost co-ordination of 
motion, has steps of a uniform height 
in each of which are cut-outs for the 
feet of the patient. As he walks up 
and down this odd stairway he sup¬ 
ports himself by the handrails. He is 
compelled to place his feet in the cut¬ 
outs as he exercises and in time, it is 
claimed, regains the power of making 
his feet do as his mind dictates, instead 
of the pedal extremities wandering 
wildly off on excursions of their own. 
A variation of the same idea is the 
walking board, 20 ft. long, with hand¬ 
rails like the gang plank of a steamer. 



Kicking the Clubs 

This is for patients who lack the 
strength to mount the stairs. 

A device that is still more curious is 
a ten-pin arrangement consisting of 
a block of wood on which are mounted 
on springs a number of pins similar to 





Walk and Stairs with Foot-Holes 























110 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


those used in our bowling alleys. Each 
pin is lettered or numbered and the 
patient sits in front of this apparatus 
and, upon the order of the nurse or 
attendant, kicks a certain pin either 
with the right or left foot, as ordered. 
The tendency of the erratic limbs is to 
attack the G pin when ordered to 
punish that marked A, or to inflict a 
jolt on B when it is the turn of the D 
pin to be kicked. Also the left leg 
refuses to obey orders and the right 
insists on taking up the kicking out 
of its turn, while the left will try to 
kick when it is right’s inning. In time, 
however, according to the originators of 
this method of restoring lost co-ordina¬ 
tion, the telegraph apparatus from the 
brain gets into working order again 
and the feet have to obey the will of 
their owner. 

- ♦ ♦- 

SEVEN YEARS’ CRUISE IN 
SMALL BOAT 


Jack London, the California author, 
is about to devote seven years to look¬ 
ing for trouble. He calls it adventure, 
and has invested $25,000 in a 57-ft. 
boat and outfit for himself and wife, 
a navigator and three sailors, with 
whom he proposes to sail the Seven 
Seas for seven years. As he is under 
contract to several publishers to fur¬ 
nish “copy” as he sails, we shall hear 
all about the voyage in due time if 
the boat keeps right side up. 




A log railway over the mountains operated 
by a steel cable and winding drum. 


His yacht, the “Snark,” is only 57 
ft. over all, 15 ft. beam and 7 ft. draft. 
The boat was built to order for this 
special purpose and is equipped with 
every foreseeable convenience and 
necessity, including three water-tight 
compartments. In case they are be¬ 
calmed it is necessary only to start up 
the 75-hp. engine, which can be fed 
from a tank of 1,000 gal. of gasoline. 
Then there is a small arsenal of shot¬ 
guns, rifles, revolvers and one rapid- 
fire gun. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

To remove paint from clothing or 
hands, turpentine will be promptly 
effective, if the paint is fresh. If it is 
dried, the removal will be more diffi¬ 
cult. Soaking in strong ammonia 
water, or in a 2 to 1 mixture of am¬ 
monia and turpentine, may do it. 


The “Snark” is 57 Ft. Long 

































X 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


111 



Torpedo Boat—50 Ft. Long 


POWER FROM THE BAY OF 
FUNDY 


Since the maximum tide from the 
Bay of Fundy is 60 ft. high, it is not 
strange that a company has been 
formed for the purpose of utilizing this 
tremendous power. One of the farthest 
points to which the tide rushes is Chig- 
neeto Ba}% and at the northeast end of 
that bay is the outlet of the Lautramar 
River, and the town of Sackville. There 
it is planned to construct three huge 
dams of concrete 60 ft. high and 1,000 
ft. long. Turbines will be turned by 
the head of water thus obtained, esti¬ 
mated to generate 75,000 lip. If all 
goes well, next winter the famous 
Fundy tides will be operating all kinds 
of public and private utilities in Sack¬ 
ville, Amherst, Moncton, and other 
towns around the head of the bay. 

- ♦ • ♦-- 

In France and Germany a new paper 
cloth is said to he manufactured at one- 
third the cost of cotton. 


LATEST FRENCH TORPEDO 
BOAT 


The French Government has just 
adopted a new model of motor torpedo 
boat, employing gasoline as fuel, which 
is sure to create a great sensation in 
naval circles. 

This craft has been built after the 
plans of Comte Recope, engineer of 
the French navy and a prominent mem¬ 
ber of the Auto Club de France. She 
is 50 ft. long and built of steel of suf¬ 
ficient strength to remain at sea in the 
heaviest seas. She can carry and eject 
a torpedo of 992.07 lb., charged with 
220.46 lb. of explosive, when traveling 
at a speed of 16 knots an hour. The 
motor consists of eight cylinders, built 
tandem fashion, and developing 150 
hp. This new craft will be attached to 
the port of Cherbourg. 

-» - «- ♦- 

The shipyards of Great Britain, all 
working together, could turn out a big 
steamship every day of the year. 





















112 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


MEASURING GRADIENTS 


The length, height and steepest 
grade are not the only elements to be 
considered in determining the difficul¬ 
ties in hill-climbing with automobile 


It is this disturbing factor that 
makes the grading of the roads such 
an intricate problem, for to say that 
the hill is 1 in 9 in each instance is to 
present only a partial view of the case. 
What is wanted more than anything 



Fair Hill 


Stiff Hill 


Bad Hill 


^1 IN 7- 


//N33 


or motorcycle. For instance, take three 
hills which happen to be compounded 
of different lengths of the same gra¬ 
dients in different order, say 1 in 9, 
1 in 17, and 1 in 23, and most inter¬ 
esting results are obtained: one is easy, 
one is difficult, and the other a bad 
gradient. The explanation of this is 
simple, says a correspondent of The 
Motor, London, for on approaching the 
first example, the 1 in 9 grade is over¬ 
come by velocity, speed is again recov¬ 
ered on the 1 in 23, and the 1 in 17 is 
passed over without a change. The 
second diagram shows the same gra¬ 
dients transposed, and here again 
velocity is maintained up to the 1 in 
23, when the 1 in 9 pulls down the mo¬ 
mentum, necessitating changing gear 


is what might be called an average 
steepness to the hill in keeping with 
its speed-retarding possibilities. After 
all, this is the real value of gradients 
to the motorist or cyclist, and I am 
afraid that until all roads are engi¬ 
neered like railway lines with an un¬ 
varying slope, the matter must remain 
as at present, 

-» — ♦-- 

Only 5% of the total cargo of the 
American steamer “Dakota” has been 
saved, including 11,771 sacks of wheat 
and flour and 477 bales of cotton. The 
ship struck a reef near Yokohama 
March 3. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

UNIQUE AUTOMOBILE SPRINK= 

LER 

0 



Sprinkler Holds 1000 Gal. 


near the top. In the third diagram 
there is no relieving of the strain, and 
the steadily adverse gradient pulls 
down the momentum, till the last part 
is a hopeless struggle. 


The streets of Berlin 
are being sprinkled with 
motor sprinklers, each 
of which does the work 
of five horse-drawn carts. 
The water is forced 
through the sprinklers at 
a uniform pressure by 
means of an air com¬ 
pressor which uses 3 hp. 
of the 18-hp. motor. The 
delivery of the water is 
controlled by four foot 
pedals. Most of the load 
is carried on the rear wheels, which 
have double rubber tires. The success 
of the motor sprinkler has been so pro¬ 
nounced they are being adopted in 
other European cities. 


























ENCYCLOPEDIA 


113 


REPAIRING BROKEN FLOWERS 

Machine for Correcting Nature’s Mistakes 



As Picked 


The introduction of mechanical ideas 
in the greenhouse has resulted in great 
economies of labor and expense. The 
most unique scheme is the bright in¬ 
vention of a Pennsylvania florist, which 
will save thousands of dollars yearly to 
the shippers and dealers in flowers. 

The demand for carnations goes on 
increasing year after year; frequently 
it is impossible to fill the orders. The 
purchaser insists on perfect blooms, but 
the carnation has a perverse habit of 
producing a large proportion of mal¬ 
formed blooms which are known to the 
trade as “splits.” If the petals which 
hang down as shown in the picture at 
the left could be brought into sym¬ 
metrical shape the flower would be sal¬ 
able. The inventor mentioned has suc¬ 
ceeded in curing this defect and so 
skillfully is it done it is almost impossi¬ 
ble to discover which are the repaired 
flowers. An instrument much like a 
pincers and a clip made of wire almost 



Courtly Weekly Florists’ Rev ew 

After Mended 

as fine as a hair rapidly and securely 
bring the petals into place and hold 
them there. The wire is almost invisi¬ 
ble, and the flower has all the good 
looks and lasting qualities of any other 
carnation. 



HOW FAR SHALL WE GO?—A writer 
having protested vigorously against the 
moustached chauffeur, one wonders how far 
horse equipage customs are to be followed. 
Shall we retain the “Tiger”?—Motor, Lon¬ 
don. 























114 


“ENCYCLOPEDIA 



RAISING SERPENT CUCUMBERS 

This curious vegetable is raised in 
frames and requires considerable skill. 
When the fruit is ready to gather the 
effect is that of numerous snakes. The 
serpent cucumber is grown in certain 
warm, sheltered districts of France and 
is gathered in August. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

BARGE TO CROSS OCEAN 

The Standard Oil Co. is to try the 
experiment of towing oil barges across 
the Atlantic. One of the 
barges is now being load¬ 
ed with oil at Point 
Breeze, Philadelphia, and 
as soon as the cargo is 
aboard the barge will be 
taken in tow by a steam¬ 
er, which will also be 
loaded with oil and towed 
to London. Both vessels 
will be deeply laden, hav¬ 
ing together 4,000,000 
gal. of refined petroleum 
in bulk. It is expected 
that the run will be made 
in two weeks after leav¬ 
ing the Delaware breakwater. The 
trip is largely experimental for the pur¬ 
pose of ascertaining whether or not the 
towing of barges in the Transatlantic 


trade is feasible. The barge that will 
be towed across is shown in the accom¬ 
panying photograph, taken while she 
was lying in the Delaware preparatory 
to loading. 



ELECTRIC LIGHT IN EGYPTIAN TOMB. 
—The tombs of the Egyptian kings of 
Thebes, near Luxor, 450 miles from Cairo, 
are lighted by electricity, says Detroit 
News-Tribune. The sarcophagus shown 
above contains the mummified remains of 
Amenophis II., of the eighteenth dynasty. 


Barge Ready to Load 

A youth in Washington, D. C., lias 
been sending out wireless messages 
from a private station, which confuse 
the official messages. 






































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


115 



Courtesy I Hus. London News 


The greatest long distance motor race yet undertaken started from Peking, China, on 
June 10th. The course lies through Mongolia, Siberia, Russia and Germany, to Paris, the 
destination. There were numerous entries. Some of the contestants have resorted to very 
original devices to help them on their way. One of these, a portable bridge, is seen in the 
illustrations. By means of this the riders expect to get their heavy three-wheeled motor 
over ditches and small streams. The illustrations are: 

1. The portable bridge fitted to the car. 2. How the motorists will pitch their tent for 
the night. 3. The bridge packed on the car for transit. 4. The portable bridge in use; 
pushing the motor across. 5. Another view of the bridge packed on the car. 


MANUFACTURE OF ROLLED 
STERLING SILVER 


The last quarter century has wit¬ 
nessed a revolution in the manufacture 
of sterling silverware which has brought 
it within the reach of almost every one. 
This change has not been caused by the 
cheapening of silver, but by improved 
processes for producing rolled sheet sil¬ 
ver and of machinery for stamping all 
kinds of articles from the sheet metal. 

The old method was to use silver 
rods, which were sawed, hammered and 
filed by silversmiths into the required 
forms. This slow and expensive method 
is still used in Great Britain, but not 
in the United States, except in some 
special cases where it would not be 
worth while to make the dies. But the 
manufacture of silverware is quite dis¬ 
tinct from that of sheet silver. The 
tatter is such a long and expert process, 
requiring much special apparatus, that 
most makers of silverware prefer to 


buy their silver sheets, just as in the 
brass trade. 

The process of making sterling sheet 
silver may be summarized as follows: 
The first step is to buy pure silver 
“bars,” which are really oblong blocks, 
usually containing 500 oz., the most 
convenient weight. These are 999 
parts fine, which is as fine as any, even 
from the U. S. mint. The next step is 
to alloy the silver with pure copper, the 
laws of several states having prescribed 
that sterling silver shall be not less 
than 925 parts pure in 1000. In order 
to facilitate the weighing of the alloy, 
pure copper shot are poured first into 
the bottom of the melting pot until the 
necessary weight is obtained, and above 
these is placed the pure silver because 
its melting point is lower. The whole 
is then well covered with charcoal, to 
prevent oxidation of the copper. Five 
parts of cadmium are often substituted 
for 5 parts of the copper, to improve the 
malleability. 



















































Largest Sheets of Silver Ever Rolled 


During the melting the two metals 
must be thoroughly mixed by careful 
stirring. It is a matter of great ex¬ 
perience and judgment to determine the 
exact moment for pouring out the 
melted metals; if they are too cold or 
too hot the casting will contain fatal 
imperfections. The casting is “sterling 
silver' 7 and is 10 by 12 by 1^ in. 

Next comes a long series of cold 
rollings, interspersed with baths of sul¬ 
phuric acid and chiselings to remove 
all impurities. In cutting them out it 
is necessary to leave a dish-shaped de¬ 
pression, otherwise the next rolling 
would cause the hole to fold upon itself, 
making a new defect. At last the ster¬ 
ling silver comes out of all its troubles 
a beautiful sheet of dead white, fit to 
be stamped into tableware for a king. 

The illustration from the Brass 
World shows the largest sheets of sil¬ 
ver ever rolled. The circle was cut 
from a sheet like the one at the right, 
and weighs 1,848 oz., and is worth over 
$1,200. Four of these circles were 
made, each 54 in. in diameter. They 
are being used in making seamless ket¬ 
tles for a special chemical process. 
-» ♦ ♦- 

MILKSTONE SUBSTITUTE FOR 
IVORY 


Skimmed milk in combination with 
formalin makes “galalith,” or milk- 
stone. It is good for manufacturing 
almost anything which is to look like 


ivory without chipping, cracking, or 
burning and which must be tough and 
take tints finely. The list is long, in¬ 
cluding billiard balls, piano keys, um¬ 
brella handles, doll heads, cigar hold¬ 
ers, pen holders and knives, door knobs 
and picture frames. In Austria 100,- 
000 people are kept busy in supplying 
the world with skimmed milk in ar¬ 
tistic and practical forms. 

-♦ ♦-♦- 

CADETS GIVE GYMNASTIC 
DISPLAY 


Once each year the naval cadets of 
the English training ship “Worcester 7 
hold a prize contest to which the public 
is invited. The illustration, from the 
Shipping World, shows one of the set 
pieces requiring 15 men. 

























117 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


CHURCH ON GIANT VOLCANO 


The most high church Episcopalians 
in the world are those who worship 
4,000 ft. above the sea on the slope of 
a volcano on the island of Maui, Sand¬ 
wich Islands. They are also nearest 
the mouth of the pit, for one of the 
largest craters on earth is but a short 
distance above the church. Regular 
services are held and are attended by 
many persons, and there is a church 
debt, which is more excusable than most 
church debts, in view of the difficulties 
to be overcome in building in such a 
location. 



The Boston Fire Chief’s Machine 


TEMPERATURE IN STORAGE 
BINS 


Large quantities of stored material, 
as coal, grain, oil, vegetable or animal 
fibre, often become heated at the bot¬ 
tom or center of the pile, while the 
surface remains cool. Spontaneous 
combustion frequently results. A ther¬ 
mometer has now been constructed 
which will show in an instant the ex¬ 
act temperature in bins or piles by 
switching it on to a wire which termi¬ 
nates at the center or bottom of the 
bin. Where this system is installed 
readings of the temperature of all the 
filled bins are taken at regular inter¬ 
vals and recorded in a book for future 
reference purposes. 


BOSTON’S FIRE CHIEF’S AUTO 


The chief of the Boston fire depart¬ 
ment has turned his horse and buggy 
over to one of the captains and now 
goes to fires in the serviceable motor 
car illustrated. Its general utility was 
never dreamed of when the car was or¬ 
dered, as shown in the record of the 
first two hours of the first day. 

A rapid run was made to a fire in an 
outlying district, where several firemen 
were overcome by smoke. The men 
were placed in the car and rushed sev¬ 
eral miles to a hospital for emergency 
treatment. Returning to headquarters 


from the hospital a man was picked up 
who had just been injured by a run¬ 
away cab, then the runaway horse was 
chased and caught. Leaving an atten¬ 
dant in charge of the horse the car 

made another run to the hospital. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

NOBODY’S RAILROAD 


Railroads are stolen often enough, 
but seldom lost or strayed; an Irish 
road has succeeded in accomplishing 
all three. It was 12 miles long and 
plastered with mortgages. As it proved 
unprofitable, neither builders nor mort¬ 
gagors cared to work it, still less did 
any one care to pay taxes on it; con¬ 
sequently the assessors could not find 
gny one who would confess ownership. 














118 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


The people along the right of way rose 
to the emergency with enthusiasm, set¬ 
tling the question of ownership by car¬ 
rying off gradually everything which 
was worth anything, except the road¬ 
bed. They had even brought up a 
crane to take away the bridge when 
the police put an end to that final 
transfer of ownership. 

-»-♦ ♦- 

MINE RESCUE SCHOOL 


The frightful loss of life in the 
mines of this country during the last 
few vears has aroused the Geological 

«✓ <_J 

Survey to devise preventive measures. 
These fall naturally under two heads: 
the prevention of deadly explosions in 
mines and the early rescue of miners 
after an explosion has occurred. Un¬ 
der the first head come the testing of 
safety lamps, and of the effects of dif¬ 
ferent blasting explosives on the gases 


of mines. Those which are found 
safest will be urged upon the atten¬ 
tion of mine owners. 

For the study of explosives a cylin¬ 
der of heavy boiler plate will be used, 
100 ft. long and 6 ft. in diameter, ly¬ 
ing upon the ground. This will be 
filled with an explosive mixture of fire 
damp and air, and then various ex¬ 
plosives will be shot into it from a mor¬ 
tar and the effects noted. In other 
experiments the cylinder will be filled 
with coal dust and air. 

For the study of rescue work a 
building will be fitted up in imitation 
of a mine to the last detail. After this 
imitation mine has been filled with 
smoke men will be instructed how to 
enter and search for bodies, carrving 
with them an apparatus for artificial 
respiration. It is probable that this 
experiment station will be located near 
Pittsburg. 


A LESSON IN HOUSE LIGHTING 





Light fixtures are too often placed without proper consideration of what the results 
will be. The Illuminating Engineer gives an excellent object lesson in the above illustra¬ 
tions which show the advantage of a properly placed side bracket, and the difference of 
working while standing so as to cast a shadow on one’s work. 




























































































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


119 


20,000 TRAIN SPEED INDICATORS 
IN EUROPE 


It is the law in France that every 
passenger engine must be equipped 
with a speed indicator, and similar laws 
will be enacted soon in Holland and 
Belgium. Their use is customary 
throughout the Continent, and in some 
of the countries even main-line freight 
engines are so equipped, since the in¬ 
dicators are considered quite as impor¬ 
tant as steam gauges and automatic 
brakes. In England, on the contrary, 
they are almost unused, and it is 
argued that the frightful accidents 
which have occurred there recently be¬ 
cause of speeding faster than the regu¬ 
lations permitted would have been pre¬ 
vented by the use of speed indicators. 
The indicator not only shows constantly 
the speed, but records it in a locked 
compartment to which the engineer has 
no access. The trip record is taken to 
the office when an engine completes 
each run. 

-» - •» ♦- 

CONVENIENT WATER=COOLED 

AUTO BRAKE 


Usually heating of the automobile 
brake is not sufficient to be serious, but 
in mountain touring involving long and 
steep descents some cooling device is 
often needed. One good method used 
is a small tank of water attached to a 
drip-pipe, from which the water drops 
upon the interior of the drum, says 
Motor, London. The latter is flanged 
to keep the moisture in, and water cir¬ 
culates also through the shoes, which 
are made hollow. 




THE WORLD’S GREATEST GAS 
WELL 


Drilled entirely by two brothers near 
the beautiful village of Kane, Pa., to a 
depth of 1,886 ft., considerably more 
than a quarter of a mile, is the world’s 
greatest gas well, the only leak from 
earth’s vast natural fuel works, it is 
said, from which the gas ever poured 
in such volume that it could be photo¬ 
graphed. The accompanying illustra¬ 
tion shows how for 50 days the stream 
of gas shot up like steam escaping from 
a safety valve on a high-pressure boiler. 

For many long, weary days the two 
brothers worked their drill through the 
side of the mountain and finally, on 
September 22, 1906, penetrated the 
sand-rock and struck what is believed 
to be the largest gas pocket ever found. 
With a roar that could be heard 10 
miles the liberated gas threw the tools 
out of the well and blew off the top 
of the derrick. 

Then came a struggle with one of 
Nature’s mightiest powers, but man 
conquered in the end and, on Novem¬ 
ber 10, the giant well was capped. It 
is estimated that 100,000,000 cu. ft. of 
gas escaped at a pressure of about 1,500 
lb. to the square inch, worth at the 
present price of the commodity about 
$6,000, for natural gas now is bringing 





















120 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


a higher price than it did in the height 
of the boom some 20 years ago, when it 
was believed that the supply was in¬ 
exhaustible and street lights, once 
ignited, were allowed to burn without 
interruption day and night because 
men were too reckless to conserve the 
supply. 

Of the world's supply of natural gas 
about 93 per cent is produced in the 
United States, Pennsylvania furnish- 
ing a large share. At the wells in that 
state it is sold for 6 cents a thousand 
cubic feet; commercial consumers get 
it for 16 cents, while for domestic use 
the price averages 25 cents. Although 
it was discovered in 1873, it was sev¬ 
eral years before use was made of it. 
-» ♦ ♦- 

OFFICER STRUCK BY FLYING 
FISH 


To the perils which beset those who 
do business in deep waters has been 
added a new one—flying fish. The 
first officer of the s. s. “Korea,” just 
into San Francisco from Asia, was 
knocked senseless by a fish which 
struck him on the side of the head 
while the ship Avas between Yokohama 


and Honolulu. That this fish was ex¬ 
ceptionally strong and ambitious is in¬ 
dicated by the fact that the officer was 
sfanding on the bridge at the time, 50 
ft. above the Avater. 

-♦- 

AN AUTO DUCK 

The subject of this illustration 
formed an important part of the an- 



Courtesy the Automobile 

nual floral parade at Honolulu and took 
a prize. The motor being altogether 
out of sight, the whole affair glided 
along with a movement as mysterious 
as it Avas graceful. The spectators 
agreed that whatever else it might be, 
it certainly Avas “a bird.” 



The Theatre-Concert European, Paris, has a wonderful mechanical system, operated 
by electric motors, by means of which the floors turn completely upside down. In five 
minutes the floor can be reversed with the seats suspended below, and the upper surface an 
open dancing floor. So perfect is the balance that the revolution is accomplished with only 
a 1J4*hp- motor. 





























ENCYCLOPEDIA 


111 



Cbe f'kw [Method 
of 

Preserving fuel 


Keeping Coal Cinder 
Water 

for ^any Years 


Filling the Concrete Tanks 


The storage of vast quantities of 
coal is indispensable to the Navy and 
to large manufactories, especially in an¬ 
ticipation of scarcity through strikes 
or other causes. But coal exposed to 
the air for any length of time deterior¬ 
ates seriously in calorific value, and ex¬ 
periments have been directed toward 
reducing this loss to a minimum. It 
varies according to circumstances, es¬ 
pecially climate, and therefore cannot 
be stated very definitely, but it is esti¬ 


mated to range from a 12% loss in 
bituminous coal stored in England to 
a maximum of 40% at Hong Kong. 

The best and simplest way to stop 
this oxygenization of coal seems to be 
by immersion, as tried by the British 
Admiralty at Portsmouth, Eng., and 
by the Western Electric Co. at Haw¬ 
thorne, 111. The latter has three large 
bins of concrete sunk in the earth, a 
total of 310 by 114 by 15 ft., and across 
them run four railway tracks on piers. 



Piles Will 6© Leveled; then Submerged 













122 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


The cuts show more plainly than words 
how the storing is done. When coal is 
wanted they scoop it out with a steam 
shovel, and its being wet helps com¬ 
bustion and eliminates dust. Another 
advantage is that all danger of prema¬ 
ture combustion, spontaneous or other¬ 
wise, is made impossible. The Western 
Electric floods the coal with fresh 
water, but English experiments with 
salt water are claimed to have increased 
the heating valut. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

ACETYLENE=ALCOHOL FOR 
GAS ENGINES 


For years experimenters have puz¬ 
zled over the problem of combining the 
advantages of both alcohol and acety¬ 
lene gas into an ideal motor gas. At 



last they have succeeded, and the new 
motive power is superior to gasoline in 
both efficiency and expense, thanks to 
the free denatured alcohol law which 
went into effect at the beginning of 
1907. 

Briefly stated, alkoethine is a me¬ 
chanical combination of carbureted al¬ 
cohol with calcium carbide. Experi¬ 
ments are still going on to perfect the 
process and determine all its features. 
One advantage observed is that the car¬ 
bide extracts from the alcohol nearly all 
the contained water; also that there is 
a chemical reaction generating heat, 
which lowers the flashing point of the 
compound. Mr. P. C. Avery, of Mil¬ 
waukee, Wis., has a two-cylinder auto¬ 
car fitted up to use either gasoline or 
alkoethine by the turning of a few 
valves, which affords good practical 


tests of the comparative merits of the 
two gases. He dissolves 1 gal. alcohol 
in 8 gal. acetylene gas, and does away 
with any carburetor, injecting the com¬ 
bination into the cylinder by a slight 
pressure. The compound gas is kept 
in an ordinary gas tank with valve at 
top. The Acetylene Journal says: 

“The defects of alcohol as a fuel 
have been that it works only with com¬ 
paratively slow engines and that it is 
too slow in vaporizing to work effect¬ 
ively in high speed' motors. Therefore 
no test of more than four hundred rev¬ 
olutions per minute has resulted satis¬ 
factorily. It requires very large quan¬ 
tities of alcohol, moreover, to obtain or¬ 
dinary results and it will only work 
well when the cylinders are hot. 

“Acetylene, on the other hand, owing 
to its high chemical purity, burns with 
rapidity and on this account has not 
lent itself with the greatest success to 
power combustion. The result of com¬ 
bining the two is that one offsets the 
other in a way that with denatured al¬ 
cohol, low in price, makes it probable 
that gasoline as a fuel for motors and 
the like may find in the combination a 
strong rival.” 

-♦ • ♦- 

Up to the present time the world’s 
diamond production amounts to only 
about 20 tons. This would mean, how¬ 
ever, 9,493,757 diamonds of one carat 
weight, each. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

A DOUBLE COMFORTER 


From England comes a novelty in 
creature comforts—a solid silver pocket 

flask with ci£- 
arettes on the 
side. As shown 
in the cut, a com¬ 
partment opens 
with a hinge and 
closes with a 
snap, protecting 
the contents 
from crushing or 
. moisture. Notice 
that the flask is curved flat, making it 
fit very snugly in the pocket. Price 
only $25, made in silver. 



\ 



























































































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


123 


FLAG TALK OF OCEAN CRAFT 



Courtesy Philadelphia North American 


FIG. 1—Basket at masthead, “Cargo wanted/' FIG. 2—Bucket at masthead, “Fresh 
water wanted.” FIG. 3—Flag reversed or ball below pennant, distress signal. FIG. 4—Code 
pennant hoisted over every message; flag at masthead alone is answering signal. FIG. 5— 
House flag amidships tells ownership. FIG. 6—“About to sail; present your bills.” FIG. 
7—Broom at masthead marks maiden voyage. FIG. 8—Two lanterns on rearmost of tugs 
warns off tow following. FIG. 9—“I have not clean bill of health.” FIG. 10—“I wish to 


speak to you.” FIG. 11—“Get out of the way 
on explosives.” 

The flag language of the Interna¬ 
tional Code Signals is spoken and un¬ 
derstood in all parts of the world. Not 
a soul on one ship may understand a 
word of the language spoken by the 
men on another, but when either ship 
hoists a reversed flag the other instant¬ 
ly reads “Distress” and recognizes a 
call for help. This flag language pro¬ 
vides for almost every contingency. In 
many ports, or sections of coast, the 
local trading boats have adopted the 
same system and have messages of their 
own. For instance a vessel approach¬ 
ing the fishing or oyster banks with a 
basket at its masthead is seeking a 
cargo. 

Meeting steamers do not dread : 

When you see three lights ahead 
Port your helm and show your red. 

For steamers passing you should try 
To keep this maxim in your eye ; 

Green to green or red to red— 

Perfect safety ; go ahead. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

The steel and electric manufactur¬ 
ing companies have orders amounting 
to $1,200,000,000. 


I am on full speed.” FIG. 12—“I am taking 

MANUFACTURING MATCHES NOT 
SO DANGEROUS 


Modern methods have greatly les¬ 
sened the dangers connected with the 
manufacture of matches, the entire 
process now being carried on without 
the touch of a human hand. Of old, 
as many as a hundred workmen a year 
in large factories would contract ne¬ 
crosis of the jaw by getting phosphorus 
into decayed teeth by inhalation or con¬ 
tact, the bones being actually consumed 
as by acid. 

Now the teeth of the workman when 
he applies for employment are exam¬ 
ined by one of the factory dentists, 
and unsound ones must be filled or 
drawn out. Also, the air in the fac¬ 
tories is changed every four minutes. 
-♦—♦ ♦- 

Aluminum is hard to restore to its 
first beauty, especially the frosted fin¬ 
ish. Immerse for a considerable time 
in water slightly acidulated with sul¬ 
phuric acid. 




























































124 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



»» 


23 MEN UNDER WATER 24 
HOURS 


That is the longest yet, 17 hours hav¬ 
ing been the top record for submerg¬ 
ence until the test made in May with 



Interior of Submarine 

the ’“Octopus” and the “Lake.” The 
first submarine carried 15 men, the 
other 8, and they went down in 30 ft. 
of water 7 miles from Newport, R. I. 
All the men had to do was to amuse 
themselves and be comfortable. They 
could read, sleep, eat, play cards, go 
fishing—anything but smoke. The 
fishing could be done out of the diving 
compartment door, and the meals, in¬ 
cluding one pie, were cooked on an elec¬ 
tric stove. The news of the dav was 

%> 

sent to them by telephone. The “Oc¬ 
topus” took down 70 cu. ft. of air com¬ 
pressed to 2,000 lb. to the sq. in; the 
“Lake” had 42 cu. ft. of compressed 
air aboard. Foul air was blown out 
through valves or through the door of 
the diving compartment, and this had 
to be done only twice for the “Oc¬ 
topus.” 

In every way the test was highly sat¬ 
isfactory. So little of the compressed 
air was used that both boats could have 


stayed down a day or two more. Sam¬ 
ples of the breathed air were bottled 
every two hours on board the “Octo¬ 
pus,” and will be analyzed. 

-» ♦♦- 

HOW MANY HORSEPOWER 

EQUAL ONE TON OF ICE ? 


That is to say — how many horse¬ 
power must be expended to liquefy suf¬ 
ficient ammonia gas to produce the 
same amount of refrigeration as will 
result from the melting of a ton of ice ? 
It is a difficult question to answer, for 
it involves not only careful experiment 
and computation, but also a number of 
variable factors. Furthermore, it is 
always necessary to allow a liberal mar¬ 
gin between theoretical and practical 
efficiency, due to loss by superheating, 
clearance, etc. 

Theoretically, for a condensing press¬ 
ure of 103 lb. and an evaporating press¬ 
ure of 4 lb. the horsepower required to 
liquefy gas enough to produce as much 
refrigeration as the melting of one ton 
of ice is 1.0584. For a condensing 
pressure of 218 lb. and an evaporating 
pressure of 51 lb., the horsepower is 
.7629. But in practice these estimates 
of horsepower must be increased 15 
per cent to 20 per cent, according to 
size of compressor, for reasons stated. 


♦ • ♦ 


AUTO ELECTRIC HORN 


A “press-the-button” electric horn for 
automobiles is the latest thing in honk- 
honking. The horn is operated from a 



Makes New Kind of Noise 


battery, and when the circuit is opened 
and closed a resilient diaphragm makes 
a new kind of noise. 



















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


125 


TRACK TAMPING MACHINE 


If you ever watched the construc¬ 
tion gang who follow after the men 
who have spiked the rails to the ties, 
you saw them bring a straight, level, 
solid track out of a snakey, wavy, un¬ 
even, line of rails. It took a small 
army of men; and the work was all 
hand work, using levers and levels, 
track gauges, shovels, tampers, and 
crowbars. Your chief impression was: 
“What a lot of money it must cost.'’ 

It does cost money; one Canadian 
engineer who has built tracks for years 
says this part of the work alone on a 
200-mile track costs $140,000. And 
so he has invented a machine which 
is claimed to do this work for $25 
per mile, which would mean a saving 
of $135,000 on 200 miles. His ma¬ 
chine is 60 ft. long and does its work 
with air compressed in the car. First 
the track is lifted to the required level 
and held there while elevators bring 
up earth from either side. Next a row 
of sharp pointed arms get busy on 
both sides and ends of a tie and push 
the ballast down. These arms move 
as fast as a section hand when the “old 
man’s” special comes along, and is war¬ 
ranted not to stop to light pipes or 



Compressed Air Tamping Machine 

.vait for the water boy. Altogether it 
is a great thing—if it works. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

• A large gyroscope located in the hold 
immediately ahead of the boilers in a 
German torpedo boat, and driven by a 
steam engine up to 3000 r. p. m., re¬ 
duced the arc of rolling of the vessel 
from 30° with the gyroscope still, to 
1J° with it in motion. 


CONVENIENCE OF COMPRESSED 
AIR CLEANING 


The uses of compressed air most fa¬ 
miliar to the average citizen are those 
he sees when walking along the street, 



Cleaning with Air 


where some skyscraper is being riveted 
with pneumatic hammers, or a port¬ 
able compressor is pumping dust from 
a residence or office building. 

The air cleaning system which has 
revolutionized old methods has now 
been applied to residences, and small 
outfits occupying little space are now 
available as a permanent fixture in the 
home. The compressor can be operated 
with either a small gasoline engine or 
an electric motor, and concealed pipes 
extend to each floor or room. In ad¬ 
dition to a dailv or weeklv removal of 




















































126 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


dirt short hose connections are used for 
dusting wearing apparel as well as the 
house furniture. The apparatus is 
simple and requires no exertion in its 
use. All the dust is drawn to a re¬ 
ceiver in the basement, from which it 
is removed as often as necessary, usu¬ 
ally once a week. With compressed 
air an 8-year-old child can sweep and 
dust a house and do better and quicker 
work than several adults with brooms 
and dusters. 

-♦♦♦- 

THE DANGERS OF FLYING 


By L. J. Lesh 

How often nowadays we hear re¬ 
marks such as this : “He has succeeded 
in flying, has he? Well, let him fly; 
but you can excuse me when it comes 
to anything as dangerous as that.” Yet 
the same person who swears that he 
would not ride a flying-machine for all 



The Start 


the money in the Bank of England does 
other things merely for sport that are 
fully as dangerous as flying (with the 
machines we now have at our com¬ 
mand) ; things, too, that give him vast¬ 
ly less pleasure than he could get out 
of a strongly made and well tested 
aeroplane. 

To the inexperienced aviation seems 
attended by dangers that loom up as 
almost too great to be braved by a hu¬ 
man being, and the would-be flying man 
is accordingly quite surprised when 
he finds that, after a little practice, 


a flying-machine is almost as safe¬ 
ly and easily handled as a bicycle. In 
fact, he finds that about the only dif¬ 
ference between coasting downhill on a 
bicycle and sliding upon the air on a 
gliding machine is that in the latter it 
is necessary to instinctively adjust the 
fore and aft balance, which in the 
bicycle is always preserved as long as 
the" two wheels touch the ground. 

The first machine to carry a man 
through the air for any considerable 
distance was the Lilienthal soarer, 
which, however, possessed such poor 
fore and aft balance that it could not 
be safely operated in winds of over 20 
miles an hour. It was this defect, 
coupled with its bad condition of re¬ 
pair, that probably caused the death 
of its operator. 

Since Lilienthal's death earnest at¬ 
tempts have been made towards pro¬ 
ducing a machine that should be struc¬ 
turally strong and possess good equilib¬ 
rium, even though less important feat¬ 
ures had to be omitted to make these 
conditions possible. These efforts have 
produced the Chanute and Wright types 
of aeroplane, which are satisfactorily 
strong and safe to handle, and yet are 
quite efficient in flying qualities. 

The truss construction now used by 
nearly all aeronautical engineers pro* 
vides such a strong and rigid frame¬ 
work for the aeroplane surfaces that 
breakage of this part of the machine 
seems practically impossible. The part 
of future dynamic aeroplanes that will 
undoubtedly cause the most trouble will 
be the motor, for as yet none has been 
developed that is even reasonably im¬ 
mune from breakage and stoppage. Of 
course, if the motor stopped a flier 
would have to come down, and if it 
happened to be flying over an undesir¬ 
able landing place and did not possess 
the power of gliding flight it might 
come to grief when it lit. 

The recent flights of the Wright 
brothers seem to indicate that they have 
found either a successful equilibrium 
preserving device or a vastly improved 
arrangement of steering surfaces, so 
that at last we can cease bothering 









ENCYCLOPEDIA 


127 


about the balance and control of a ma¬ 
chine. 

The Wright flyer is capable of being 
steered with even greater accuracy than 
an automobile or bicycle, and yet the 
operators have spent far less time in 
actual practice than is required to ob¬ 
tain a mastery over either of the last 
two conveyances. 

To a person who has had considerable 
experience in the air the possibility of 
accident seldom occurs, and indeed the 
motion is so rapid that there is no time 
to think about it during a flight. Peo¬ 
ple seldom think of the risks they run 
while riding at 100 miles an hour in a 
railway car, or half a mile a minute in 
an automobile, and it is quite probable 
that after the novelty of the thing 
wears off there will be few people afraid 
to experience the quick rush of the 
aeroplane. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

SUBWAYS FOR CITY PIPES AND 

WIRES 


European cities are making great 
headway in the construction of sub¬ 
ways beneath the streets to contain not 
only electric wires for light, power and 
communication, but also for the gas 
and water pipes. In London a sub¬ 
way for these utilities is now built 
whenever a new street is authorized. 
Some of the London subways are as 
large as 7 ft. high by 12 ft. wide; 
there are already seven miles of these 
pipe subways. 

In Manchester the subway has now 
reached a length of 7,386 ft. and is 
used exclusively for electric wires. 



Manchester Subway 


which are contained in pipes carried on 
iron brackets fastened to the walls. 
The cost was $39 per linear foot. 
Other cities where the system has been' 
built are Leeds, Nottingham and St. 
Helens. The construction is paid for 
by the city, which charges an annual 
rental from the service companies, 
which more than pays the interest on 
the cost. These annual charges are 
based on the diameter of the pipe, 
ranging from 60 cents for 3-in. di¬ 
ameter or less up to $12.50 for 36-in. 
per 300 ft. for water or gas. For other 
companies the rate is much higher, 
being $6.50 for 3-in. pipes and $20 
for 18-in. per 300 ft. The freedom 
from leaks in water and gas mains, 
and the ease and economy with which 
repairs can be made make the 


Exchange 
Tel. Co 



Brick 

Arch 


Nat.Tel.Co's New 
£$//, Brackets & Wires 


4"6a s for 

- ParapetSerric^ 


Brick 
Arch 



Victoria Embankment- (At Charing Cross Station) 


' •* ' 5 "Water (Q) East London Water Co± ' * ’ 

Commercial Rpaou. tasfi 













































128 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


proposition an inviting one to the ten¬ 
ant companies. 

Our American cities should take up 
the pipe subway question and not only 
provide a revenue producing power 
for all time to come, but save the 
everlasting tearing up of our streets. 
-»-♦—♦- 

LOADING A LAKE ERIE CAR 
FERRY 


Crossing Lake Erie on 
routes of 50 to 60 miles, 
between the United 
States and Canada, ply 
several car ferries, each 
carrying from twenty- 
five to thirty cars. These 
ferries are open at the 
rear above the car deck 
and are equipped with 
tracks of the same gauge 
as those of a railroad. 

The method of loading is 
to back the ferry up to an 
apron, which is lowered 
and raised by means of 
weights to the level of the 
ferry tracks. This level, of course, 
varies with the stage of the water in 
the river. The tracks of the apron 
connect those of the dock with those 
of the ferrv and thus admit of switch- 
ing cars aboard as shown in the photo¬ 
graph. Once the cars are in their place 
on the ferry they are fastened securely 
for the trip. Coal is one of the chief 
commodities carried in this manner. 


MINER SAVED BY DIVER 

Thrilling Rescue in Australian Mine 

It was in a flooded mine in Western 
Australia that divers were first em¬ 
ployed to do rescue work. All the 
miners had escaped except one, and 
they knew he was alive somewhere be¬ 
cause he was knocking—any one would 
be a knocker under such circumstances. 
Divers were brought by special train 


from the coast, 400 miles away, and 
were sent in. One of them found the 
man 500 ft. from the shaft, and car¬ 
ried him food, clothing and candles 
while the water was being pumped out 
with feverish haste. But it took nine 
days to get it down to a 5-ft. depth, 
and when the imprisoned miner tried 
to wade out he fainted and was carried 
most of the way. 



Car Ferry Open at the Rear 



FOREIGN LOCOMOTIVES—The above is one of the English built engines used in the 
Soudan. It is of rather light construction, weighing about 32 tons. It is built on American 
lines to a considerable extent—in fact, several were built in the United States, 






































129 


« 

ENCYCLOPEDIA 


BIG ROPE DRIVE 


The illustration shows one of the 
three sections which .when put together 
formed a rope driving wheel 24 ft. in 
diameter and 14 ft. face. The single 



24 Ft. in Diameter 


section weighs 90,000 lb.; the assem¬ 
bled wheel 135 tons. It has been put 
in service in a steel mill driving the 
sixty 2-in. transmission ropes at a mile 
a minute. 

-♦ «--♦- 

SMOKELESS SOFT COAL 


A report comes from Manchester, 
England, that a company has been 
formed and five acres purchased near 
that city for the purpose of erecting 
large works to exploit a new invention. 


This is declared to be no less than a 
process for depriving soft coal of its 
smoke by extracting the valuable oils 
which produce it. The residuum is 
called coalite, looking like coke, but 
much more bulky and heat-producing, 
and salable at one-third the price of 
coal. Of course, the by-products are 
expected to be very valuable. 

-»♦ ♦- 

STEEL CANAL IN SAHARA 
DESERT 


On account of the desert sand 
storms, the porosity of the soil and the 
extreme dryness of the climate, it was 
found necessary to build a canal of 
steel instead of using stone or cement 
at Kom-Ombo, in upper Egypt. The 
canal conducts water for irrigating 
purposes, is 19 ft. 8 in. wide at the 
top, 21 ft. deep and 5,610 ft. long. It 
was constructed of sheet steel which 
was riveted on the ground, 650,000 
rivets being used. As the thermometer 
stood at 117° in the shade at noon, 
the difficulty of working inside the 
steel shell can be imagined. 

--♦ ♦ ♦- 

PORT OF NATAL IMPROVED 


Prior to the entry of this steamship 
the mail steamers were unable to enter 
the Port of Natal owing to the shal¬ 
low entrance to the harbor. Several 
months’ dredging have resulted in 35 
ft. of water, and now the weekly mail 
steamers load and discharge passengers 
and cargo at the wharf.—Contributed 
by A. Leach Wood, Durban, Port 
Natal, South Africa. 



The Steamer 





























LARGEST CONCRETE ARCH IN THE WORLD 


What is undoubtedly the longest single span concrete 
arch in the world is now being constructed in a bridge at 
Germantown, near Philadelphia. The main span is 233 
ft. between springing points, and 60 ft. wide. With 
four concrete arch approaches the entire length is 520 

ft., and will cost $256,- 
000. The bridgeway will 
be 120 ft. above the 
creek, and will afford a 
driveway of 40 ft., with 
an 8-J-ft. sidewalk on 
each side. 

The longest masonry 
span is 295 ft. 
3 in. long, at Plauen, 
Saxony; second comes 
the stone arch at Pe- 
trusses River, Luxem¬ 
burg, 275 ft. 6 in.; and 
third the Cabin John 
bridge at Washington, 


bridge 


Framing lor the Big Arch 


219 ft. 9 in. 


in length. 



-♦ ♦ ♦- 

LONG TRACTION TRAIN 


The traction engine is 20 hp. and 
drew the train of 14 loaded wagons 
eight miles on half a ton of coal. The 
outfit weighed 35 tons; the wagons con¬ 
tained 890 bu. of shelled corn, and the 
entire train was 180 ft. long. 


The Completed Bridge 


This method of hauling requires 
only one man to a train. 



The Train Was 180 Ft. Long 


























ENCYCLOPEDIA 


131 


FINISHING THE GAS BAG OF AN AIRSHIP 



Interior of Gas Bag==Men Work in Stocking Feet 


Finishing the interior of the big gas 
bag of an airship is one of the most 
delicate and important tasks in the en¬ 
tire construction. One of our illustra¬ 
tions shows the interior of the dirigible 
balloon built by W. H. Dilger of Cin¬ 
cinnati for entrance in the aerial navi¬ 
gation contests at the Jamestown Ex¬ 
position. The bag is inflated with air 
and the men are working in their 
stocking feet in order not to injure the 


delicate silk fabric, and have been ap¬ 
plying white soapstone, which is used 
to keep the tissue from sticking to¬ 
gether, as the varnish never becomes 
quite dry, but is always a little tacky. 

The segments of the envelope are 
clearly shown in the views. These seg¬ 
ments are sewn together and the seams 
reinforced on the inside with strips of 
the material. This construction pre¬ 
vents the material tearing farther than 



The Driving Machinery 


Varnishing the Bag 

















132 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


the nearest seam, should the balloon 
burst, and gives the navigator a chance 
for his life, as the gas cannot escape 
as fast as it would from a large rent. 
The varnish used is specially prepared, 
every builder having his own secret 
formula, and is applied in thin coats, 
so the pores of one coat will not come 
opposite those of another. 

The engine in the frame supplies 
propelling power. It is of 12 hp. and 
weighs 80 lb. The hydrogen generator 


is a big tank of 3,200-gal. capacity and 
makes 700 cu. ft. per hour. Cotton 
twine net is used to fasten the car to 
the balloon. On a spherical bag it al¬ 
ways has a diamond mesh, and on a 
dirigible a square mesh. 

Mr. Dilger for several years con¬ 
ducted upper air explorations for the 
United States government, and also 
worked with M. Santos Dumont in 
Paris for two years. He will attempt 
to travel by airship to the Exposition. 




“TURN DOWN” ELECTRIC LIGHT 


The illustration shows the 
latest improvement in the 
way of an adjustable incan¬ 
descent light. It fits on any 
ordinary wall socket, and by 
means of a small lever turns 
the light on or off in the 
same way a gas jet is con¬ 
trolled. The lamps hereto¬ 
fore have had only two de¬ 
grees of light—half power 
or full light, but this burn¬ 
er can be set to give, just 
the right amount desired. 
-» ♦ ♦- 

Bad air is bad for wood as well as 
for men. Seven weeks of it in a mine 
is said to have rotted 12-in. Oregon 
pine. Of course, some gas present in 
the mine had a chemical affinity for the 
wood. 



SPRING AUTO WHEELS—The one at the 
left is the front wheel; the other the rear 
wheel. A French construction. 


-» ♦ ♦- 

STEEL SLEEPING CARS 


A nearly all-steel sleeping car is one 

of the mechanical exhibits at the 

Jamestown exposition. The car is 72 

ft. long, 14 ft. high and 10 ft. wide, 

and metal is used wherever possible; 

the seat frames and upper berth are of 

pressed steel, while the rivets in the 

outside panels are countersunk, leaving 

a perfectly plain surface. The effect 

is to more closely resemble a wooden 

car than anv steel cars heretofore built. 
«/ 




Courtesy PhiU, North Am ricsn 

Pullman Car in California Wreck of Shriners’ Train=-The White Sheets Cover Bodies of the Dead 















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


133 



First=CIass American Battleship in Dry Dock Showing Manner of Holding Ship in 

Place with Timbers of Great Strength 


ANNUAL WATER SUPPLY OF 
LONDON 


If all the inhabitants of the earth 
were gathered into one place, sur¬ 
rounded by a wall 10 ft. high, and the 
annual water supply of Greater London 
were poured in, the reservoir would be 
filled to overflowing. In other words, 
each man, woman and child in the 
world could be supplied with 50 gal. 
a year from the city mains, which, put 
end to end, would cover nearly \ of 
the earth's equator. Or, in other w r ords, 
every person in London could take a 
33-gal. bath daily, besides having 
plenty of water for drinking and other 
purposes. But that is just what they 
certainly do not do, so where does this 
flood of water go? Probably, as in 
other great cities, into breweries, 


slaughter houses, factories, hydraulic 
elevators and other industries, besides 
an enormous wastage. But it has to 
be paid for just the same—over 16 tons 
of gold a year is what it costs. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

COTTON GROWING IN KOREA 


Korea is likely to become something 
of a factor in the world’s cotton mar¬ 
ket. The Japanese department of 
agriculture has raised an experimental 
crop of 100 bales from American seed 
with highly satisfactory results. The 
yield per acre is said to be almost in¬ 
credible and is explained by the un¬ 
usual amount of hand labor employed 
in raising the crop, the coolie labor be¬ 
ing so very cheap. The Japanese spin¬ 
ners now import 200,000 bales of 
American cotton annually. 


















134 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


♦ 



Courtesy World’s Work, Loudon 


In Ireland mechanical methods are rap¬ 
idly taking the place of hand work. The il¬ 
lustration shows a modern Irish creamery 
of which there are now several hundred. 


BY AUTO TO SOUTH POLE 


Next October a new Antarctic ex¬ 
pedition will start from England. The 
ship will carry, in addition to the nsual 
supplies for such an expedition, an 
automobile especially prepared for ice 
and snow traveling. Lieut. E. H. 
Shackleton, who has had Antarctic ex¬ 
perience, will try for the South Pole 
with this substitute for dog sledges. 
It is a pretty bold venture, for the ship 
must return to New Zealand after land¬ 
ing him to avoid being frozen in. 

-♦— o ♦- 

WOODEN ROLLING DOOR 


A patented door which rolls up like 
a curtain is now on the market and is 



Rolls up Like a Curtain 


desirable for use where room is not 
available for a solid sliding door. The 
wood seats are strung on phosphor 
bronze ribbons, and the edges slide in 
grooves at the sides of the doorway. 
The steel barrel on which the “door” 
is wound contains strong springs which 
counterbalance the weight of the cur¬ 
tain. A door 13 ft. wide and 17 ft. 
high can be opened or closed in thirty 
seconds. 

- ♦- 

AERIAL NAVIGATION A SUCCESS, 
SAYS DR. BELL 


“The problem of aerial navigation 
already is solved and America is in ad¬ 
vance of the rest of the world in 
heavier-than-air flying machines.” This 
was the emphatic statement made by 
Professor Alexander Graham Bell in 
England, recently, whither he had gone 
to receive the degree of doctor of sci¬ 
ence conferred upon him by Oxford. 
Dr. Bell declares that “there is left only 
the problem of improving the machine 
that has been invented” by the Wright 
brothers, and others, and that “great 
credit is due Mr. Octave Chanute of 
Chicago,” who not only induced young 
Americans to experiment, but paid 
much of the expenses out of his own 
pocket. In regard to future develop¬ 
ments, Dr. Bell said: 

“The development of the airship, I 
think, will come for other than com¬ 
mercial reasons, for the flying machine 
is destined to take an important part- 
in warfare. The war departments of 
different governments are watching 
with greatest interest whatever is being 
done in this direction, and once a suc¬ 
cessful airship is given to the world its 
growth toward perfection will be more 
rapid than anything ever seen. 

“The airship will overturn all pres¬ 
ent methods of warfare. Then, too, 
wealthy men will take to airships as 
they have taken to automobiles, and 
the machines will be developed for 
speed. They will undoubtedly be util¬ 
ized for purposes of rapid and light 
transportation, such as carrying the 
mails.” 




























f 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


\ 

135 


VENTILATING AIR PORT 


x4 valu able 
addition to the 
comfort of sea 
travel is a new 
ventilating air 
port which can 
be left partly 
. open even in 
rainy or stormy 
weather. T h e 
Marine Journal 

Partly Open says . a i r _ 

port sash is operated by raising or low¬ 
ering, in a similar manner to a window 
in a house, and is easily operated as 
the weight is balanced/ 7 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

WOODPECKERS RUIN POLES 



The Southern Pacific is about to 
build a new line, 250 miles long, in Old 
Mexico, which will require 7,000 tele¬ 
graph poles. Now a nicely seasoned 
telegraph pole, deviled, with juicy 
worms, is just nuts and raisins for a 
woodpecker, and the company has rea¬ 
son to fear that in a short time its 
7,000 poles will be mostly holes. So 
the wise men of the Southern Pacific 
will try to spoil the woodpecker’s ap¬ 
petite by steeping their poles in 
creosote. 

- ♦ ♦ ♦ - 

HEAVY KEEL-ODD CRAFT 


It tapers from the middle to about 8 
in. wide at bow and stern. 

The lead keel was cast out of doors 
in the ground, the mould being made 
from a one-piece pattern. As no melt¬ 
ing facilities were at hand for pouring 
15 tons at one time, three pots were 
secured, each holding about 2 tons, and 
these were kept going 12 hours, and 
poured alternately. The keel is 
iastened with heavy bronze bolts.— 
Contributed by Leo G. Haase, Pasa¬ 
dena, Cal. 

-♦—♦—♦- 

STEEL BOX CAR 


Steel box cars will eventually replace 
the wooden ones just as the steel gon¬ 
dolas are displacing that type of freight 



Capacity 50 Tons 


car. The illustration shows an all-steel 
car built at the Omaha shops of the 
Union Pacific Railway. This car is 
40 ft. long inside, has a center door 
8 ft. wide, weighs 37,000 lb. and has 
a capacity of 50 tons. 


An odd craft is being 
built at San Diego for 
an Englishman from 
plans of his own design. 
The sailboat has a 
length over all of G8 
ft., breadth 14^ ft., 
while the keel, which is 
made of one piece of 
lead, weighs 15 tons. 
The lead is the lower 
dark portion shown in 
the photograph, a n d 
measures 24 in. wide at 
the middle by 15 in. 
deep, and is 27 ft. long. 



\ 


15 Tons of Lead for Keel 



























136 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


PHOTOGRAPHING LIGHTNING 


The season of thunder storms is at 
hand, and anyone with a camera will 
find the photographing of lightning 
both instructive and fascinating. Some 
excellent suggestions are made by Dr. 


after the wind has shifted the air col¬ 
umn. Lightning may be photographed 
in the daytime by using an extremely 
deep yellow screen. The camera should 
not be moved during the flash; holding 
it in the hands will not yield perfect 
results; it must be rigid. 



Fig. 1—Zig Zig Fig. 2 -Sinuous Fig. 3 —Ramified 


Lockyer in the Photographic Journal, 
London. He divides ordinary lightning 
into four general classes: Stream, 
sinuous, ramified, and meandering. 

The photographing of lightning is a 
simple matter. The lens should be 
focused during the day upon a distant 
object, or at night on a distant lamp, 
and the baseboard marked if necessary, 

«y z 

so that the lens can be set for infinity 
at a moment’s notice when required. 
A dark night is best for the purpose, 
and, when the thunder clouds are seen 
to be gathering, the camera with the 
plate should be placed in position, be¬ 
ing directed to the point where the 
flash is expected, the slide drawn, the 
lens uncapped, and the instrument al¬ 
lowed to remain until a flash has oc¬ 
curred. 



A “Ribbon” Flash 


Occasionally one flash will follow an¬ 
other and show double on the plate, 
producing a “ribbon” or “band” flash. 
This is caused by the second flash fol¬ 
lowing the same heated column of air, 


Thunder travels one mile in about 
four or five seconds; by counting the 
seconds between the flash and the re¬ 
port the distance can be fairly esti¬ 
mated. Some flashes descend from the 
cloud to the earth, and others ascend 
from earth to cloud. When both ends 
of the flash are included in the photo¬ 
graph it is a simple matter to trace the 
course. This method can only be used 
when the flashes are ramified. A 
ramified flash resembles a river with 
its tributaries, but the current travels 
in the reverse direction to the river 
flow; the lightning commences at the 
estuary end of the main trunk and 
breaks up into ramifications as it pro¬ 
ceeds, so that when two images of a 
multiple flash are on the plate and the 
ramifications of one point towards the 
earth, and of the other towards the sky, 
it might be assumed that they traveled 
in opposite directions. 

- ♦ ♦ ♦- 

DIVORCE BY WIRE 


The marriage tie is only a “granny” 
knot nowadays, as everyone knows, but 
a Los Angeles lawyer is the first to 
untie it at long distance. His client, 
a. California woman, wished to enter a 
cross-complaint to her husband’s action 
for divorce, instituted at Chicago, and 
the lawyer carried on the proceeding 
by telegraph, regardless of a bill that- 
amounted to no small proportions. 

























ENCYCLOPEDIA 


137 


RAILWAY SCHOOL ON WHEELS 


The increasing complexity of mod¬ 
ern mechanism demands technical 
knowledge as well as intelligence and 
faithfulness on the part of employes, 
and employers are adopting various 
methods for supplying this need. One 
of the best of these is a school-car fitted 
up by the C., B. & Q. By. for the in¬ 
struction of its trainmen in all the de¬ 
tails of mechanism—and operation of 


class-room, 41 ft. long, and containing 
folding chairs for 18 men. In front 
of the students is grouped all the ap¬ 
paratus for instruction, and the large 
cut presents the view of it which each 
one has. The rows of rods seen on 
each side are the piston rods of 47 
freight brake cylinders, each 8 by 12 in.; 
36 being Westinghouse and 11 New 
York. Notice that these rows con- 



This Car Contains Brake Equipment of 47 Cars 


the New York and Westinghouse brake 
systems, of electric and acetylene train 
lighting, and of air signal apparatus. 
All this is so skillfully packed into one 
car as to give an accurate idea of the 
equipment for a train of fourteen 60-ft. 
cars, and yet everything is in plain 
sight of each member of the class. 

The car is designed to be moved 
from place to place as needed, there¬ 
fore at one end there is an office and 
sleeping room; at the other end is a 
boiler room, with coal bin, water heater, 
etc. Between these two is located the 


verge toward the rear, so as to bring 
each into plain view of the class. Be¬ 
sides these there are two tender brakes, 
10 by 12 in., and two driver brakes 
10 by 10 in., all Westinghouse, and 
mounted horizontally. Of these one 
tender brake cylinder is seen on the left 
of the picture, bolted to a swinging 
crane, by means of which it can be 
swung out from the side of the car into 
full view. Underneath this and at¬ 
tached to the same crane is a row of 
six triple valves having various de¬ 
fects, any one of which may be turned 



















ENCYCLOPEDIA 



Sectional Parts of Brake System 


horizontally and connected with the 
cylinder above in imitation of actual 
use beneath a car. 

The apparatus in the middle fore¬ 
ground can be swung either way for ex¬ 
planation of sectional parts of the two 
systems. Above hang 14 handles of 
signal cords of the air apparatus, one 
for each car in the train. 

The two small cuts present views of 
the same portion of the car, taken from 
opposite directions. It is the portion 
which is seen partially on the right of 
the large cut—a bench on which stand 
various sectional parts for detailed 
study of air-brake and steam-heat appa¬ 
ratus, lubricators and injectors. The 
car is equipped with electric light and 
acetylene lighting. Vertical acetylene 
generators appear at the right of one 
of the small cuts. 


♦ ♦ ♦ 


MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE 
EXPLAINED 


the existence of a forgotten bin con¬ 
taining the 25 bu. of wheat. 

In mills and elevators the grain bins 
are built in rows, open at the top. 
When the grain comes up the elevat¬ 
ing trough it discharges into a spout. 
This spout is made to turn so as to 
empty into any bin in the mill. The 
turning is done with a lever on the 
ground floor, attached to an iron rod 
which extends up and is fastened to 
the discharge spout. The operator was 



Spout Shifting Machinery—Operated from the 
Ground Floor 


The following incident forcibly illus¬ 
trates how unreliable circumstantial 
evidence may be: Three years ago a 
man living near a mill at Oakland, 
Iowa, was accused of stealing 25 bu. of 
wheat which had disappeared mysteri¬ 
ously from the mill. The man and his 
friends stoutly asserted his innocence, 
and the prosecution failed for lack of 
evidence, but, of course, an unpleasant 
cloud rested upon his name. This has 
now been happily lifted by the tearing 
down of the old mill, which revealed 


careless in setting his lever and the 
grain was thus run into the bin which 
was out of service. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

From Montreal to Winnipeg, 1,430 
miles, is the greatest distance the 
human voice has ever been transmit¬ 
ted. The medium was a copper wire 
installed by the Canadian Pacific Rail¬ 
road Company for their telegraphone 
system, by which a telegraph and a tele¬ 
phone message can be transmitted si¬ 
multaneously. 


































V 


REMARKABLE WORK ON HIGH STACK 


Section Weighing 40 Tons Added at Height of 200 Feet Without 

Shutdown 



Courtesy J. F. Jackson, C. B. 


Four Stages in the Work on High Stack 


One of the most formidable of many daring engineering feats in midair was 
the extension of the mammoth stack at the smelter works a few miles from Doug¬ 
las, Ariz. The original stack was one of the largest in the West, being 200 ft. 
high and 25 ft. diameter on the inside, but had become too small and an exten¬ 
sion of 60 ft. at the top was decided on. The difficulties of the undertaking were 
increased by the condition that the plant could not shut down for even an hour 
and that the men must work on a platform 200 ft. above the ground amid clouds 
of smoke, deadiy gases and heat constantly belching from the giant chimney. 

Four months were spent in erecting the false work, which was built of 12 by 
12-in. timbers braced with 3 by 12-in. material, all bolted with heavy bolts. It 

139 
































































































140 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


was almost universally predicted that the structure would collapse under the 
strain, for the 60-ft. section weighed 40 tons—as much as a fair-sized locomotive. 
The section was successfully hoisted to the platform and then the task of shifting 
it into place began. The illustrations show the progress of the work at four 
stages. Slowly the ponderous mass moved to one side as the cloud of smoke 
sought its new channel. Then a signal flag fluttered from above announcing that 
the new section was ready to lower and attach. 

The feat was accomplished in less than three hours, while in all the big 
plant not an engine slowed down, nor a single blower reduced its pressure, nor a 
safety valve popped as a result of steam generated but not used. It was an accom¬ 
plishment requiring skill, science and personal courage of the highest order, as 
well as ability to anticipate every possible condition of failure and provide against 
it in advance. 

-»-» ♦- 

PANAMA CANAL COMPARATIVELY SMALL UNDERTAKING 


The building of the Panama Canal has been unduly magnified as an en¬ 
gineering undertaking, -although it is the largest job of its kind to date. It is 
estimated to cost about $150,000,000, but this is less than $2 per head for each 
man, woman and child in the richest country in the world, or about 25 cents per 
head per year for eight years. That certainly will not “bust” us. 

The distance from ocean to ocean is only 40 miles, and the chief engineer 
can go over the entire line and return by rail between breakfast and supper. 
Everything that modern science, in all its branches, can contribute is being util¬ 
ized to do the work economically, speedily and safely. In a single machine, coal 
and steam, with an engineer under a canopy, do the same work which if per¬ 
formed in the old way would make a thousand men with shovels and wheelbarrows 
toil under a relentless sun. The working conditions are really easy and comfort¬ 
able as compared with the privations, hardships and dangers which in the early 
days beset the construction of hundreds of miles of railroad in the United States. 

There are at this moment right here at home not a few engineering works 
under way, and financed by private capital, too, which in the aggregate will cost 
several times as much as the canal. In many respects the engineering difficulties 
are vastly greater than those at Panama, and, barring the one item of climate, the 
dangers to life and limb are even greater. 

And yet so familiar are we with these things they create wonder for a few 
days only, and after that scarcely a passing comment. In New York City alone 
the great works of tunnels under city and river, railway terminals and depots, 
water supply and other similar enterprises now in progress aggregate the enor¬ 
mous sum of $625,000,000, or more than four Panama canals, while three of the 
undertakings amount to $100,000,000 each. 

A railroad builder in Chicago whose reputation is national among railroad 
men said: “The digging of the canal is, of course, a big thing, but considering 
the facilities available for the work is relatively not a bit bigger than lots of en¬ 
gineering work which the railroads of this country have been doing for years 
past. They have not made any fuss or splurge, and for the most part the public 
has never even heard about it. In constructing the first track across Arizona, for 
instance, the men were in constant jeopardy of death from hostile Indians, thirst, 
starvation, poisonous reptiles, and sunstroke, and could not communicate with 
nearest headquarters for weeks at a time. Scores lost their lives or were devoured 
by wild beasts of the deserts or mountains, and to this day no trace of them has 
ever been found. To a. railroad constructor the canal job does not present the 
formidable obstacles which loom up like mountains to so many people.” 




ENCYCLOPEDIA 


141 


“NIGHTINGALE” AUTOMOBILE 
WHISTLE 


A new whistle for automobiles has 
been brought out by a Paris firm, which 
is blown by the exhaust. It is quite 
musical and produces a pleasing sound, 
the pitch and volume being regulated 
by a lever operated from the seat. The 
accompanying illustration from U Au¬ 



tomobile shows the manner of mount¬ 
ing and operating the whistle. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

The balloon “United States,” in 
which Lieut. Lahm won the cup last 
year, has been purchased by the Aero 
Club of St. Louis. 

-»- ♦- 

A Japanese commission has started 
for England to place the contract for a 
battleship of 21,000 tons displace¬ 
ment, at a cost of $11,250,000. 


PORTABLE AIR COMPRESSOR 


The rapidly increasing number of 
uses to which compressed air can be 
put in and around a manufacturing 
plant, makes a portable compressor a 



Lsily Drawn About 


desirable machine. The compressor 
illustrated is a complete plant, operat¬ 
ing with an electric motor and can be 
used wherever current can be obtained. 
One hundred feet of air hose is car¬ 
ried in the box over the storage air 
tank. 

-♦ > ♦ - 

AUTOS FOR EGYPTIAN DESERTS 


The experiments with motor cars by 
the Egyptian government have met 
with such success that considerable at¬ 
tention is being devoted to the pro¬ 
duction of cars specially designed for 
work in that country. The type illus¬ 
trated consists of a light weight 
3-wheel motor car of 12 to 18 hp. 
with a 2-wheel trailer. The wheels 
are fitted with 5-in. tires, says the 
Automobile, to prevent sinking in the 
sand. 


















































142 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



TEST BRIDGE BUILT IN A GARDEN 


Almost 100 years ago the curious 
arch bridge shown in the illustration 
was built in the garden of an English 
army engineer,- at Seringapatam, In¬ 
dia. The structure has a span of 112 
ft., rise of 11 ft., and is 4 ft. wide. 
Thickness at the springing is 5 ft., and 
at the crown 3 ft. 10 in. Ordinary 
bricks and mortar were used. 

It seems Capt. De Havilland had 
recommended a 5-span bridge of simi¬ 
lar arch construction to cross a river. 
He was laughed at and his plans re- 
jecte 1. He built the single span at his 
own expense, and although he lived to 
the age of 90 years, his demonstration 
has already outlasted him 50 years, and 
bids fair to endure for centuries. 

■ - » ♦ ♦ - 

Six British antiquated warships sold 
at auction for $383,000. They origin¬ 
ally cost nearly $8,000,000. 

-♦—*♦- 

ENORMOUS GROWTH OF CEMENT 
INDUSTRY 

The production of Portland cement 
in this country has increased in 35 
years from 3,000 bbl. a year to 4,000,- 
000 bbl. in last year, and this with the 
prospect of an increase during the next 
year of 20%. Without being in the 
hands of a trust, the prices have in¬ 
creased in the past 18 months from 15 
to 20% from legitimate demand. 

This enormous output for 1906 
would be sufficient to build a first-class 
cement sidewalk 5 ft. wide 3.6 times 
around the world, or build a sidewalk 
456 ft. wide reaching from Chicago to 
New York. 


The uses to which this material, 
mixed with sand or crushed stone, are 
put are almost unlimited. They range 
from the smallest culvert to the enor¬ 
mous concrete arches spanning our 
largest streams; from the humblest 
cottage made of concrete blocks to the 
finest skyscraper and office buildings 
built from reinforced concrete. 

-♦-- 

MOTOR TOWER WAGON 


Tower wagons for constructing and 
repairing the overhead wires of street 
railways are usually drawn by horses, 
as a repair car can seldom get to the 
place on account of other cars blocking 
the tracks. The Toronto Kailway Co. 
has imported a motor tower w r agon 
from Switzerland. The tower is carried 
in the manner shown in the cut and 



raised to double its present height 
when repairs to the trolley wires are 
being made. 



















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


143 


LIFE-SAVING BY GASOLINE 

Motor Lifeboats Can Travel 200 Miles at a Trip 


In place of fourteen strong arms, 
pulling seven oars, with another pair 
at the steering oar, now a 4-cylinder 
4-cycle gasoline engine pushes the craft 
along at 10 miles an hour. A solid 
18-in. propeller, with a reversing 
clutch, propels the 34-ft. boat. Two 
gasoline tanks, one with a capacity of 
25, the other with 75 gal. of the color¬ 
less fluid in which is locked up so 
much effort, admit a radius of 200 
miles. Never lived a crew of men with 
the strength to pull so far without 
stopping—or ever will live a crew 
which could, even for a short distance, 


a long way, or where continual high 
seas forbid the launching of such a 
heavy boat, of course the early boat 
with its proved worth will remain. 

It seems odd, when one thinks of it, 
that a little cockle shell 34 ft. long 
should live and ride out seas and wind 
which are too much for the huge hulk 
which wrecks and needs assistance. 
But these little boats are built with 
one single idea—safety—and all the 
skill and inventive ability of the build¬ 
ers are designed to this one end. The 
boats are built of one of the most ex¬ 
pensive materials which can be ob- 



Partly Over 


Keel Up 


Self Righting 


equal the speed of the little pulsating 

engine under the hood in the stern of 

© 

the boat. 

Nearly a dozen of these boats are 
now in use in this country, and every 
one has had a chance, and successfully 
demonstrated its superiority for the 
work it does, over any previous type 
of craft used for the same purpose. 
So successful are these boats that 
others are being built and installed— 
old boats, not too weatherworn, are 
being changed to motor boats, and as 
soon as appropriations allow, the work 
will be extended until the coasts are 
all supplied with these craft, wherever 
it is possible to use them. Where 
shallow water extends from the beach 


tained—mahogany. This because that 
wood is close grained and resists stress 
and decay much better than other 
woods, is so formed that it can be 
worked and bent and made into a boat 
without hurting its strength, and be¬ 
cause it is light for its strength. Two 
layers are used, crossing each other 
on the slant, with fine canvas and 
waterproof paint between. The boats 
cannot be sunk. They have a false 
bottom, through which run 8-in. tubes, 
closed with valves, which keeps the 
water out. But let a wave fill the 
boat and in less than half a minute the 
water all runs out of these tubes back 
into the sea. The boats cannot stay 
upset, and turn over with difficulty; 















on the bottom is a heavy keel 
of metal—gun metal—because that 
does not rust easily and because it does 
not set up electrolysis with the copper 
rivets, as would some other metals. 
This 1,80'0-lb. of keel flops a boat right 
side up as fast and as often as a wave 
upsets the boat—and it must be a 
mighty wave indeed which accom¬ 
plishes the feat. The boat cannot sink, 
for there are eight watertight com¬ 
partments in it, any one of which is 
sufficient to hold the boat on the sur¬ 
face full of men and women. And in 
these eight compartments are 82 cop¬ 
per air cases, so that the boat can be 
smashed into small pieces, cut in two, 
in ten, in a hundred parts, and still 
there will be enough floating for those 
in the boat at the time of the accident 
to hold on to. 

The photographs show the difficulty 
which is experienced in trying to up¬ 
set one of these boats. A number of 
men, with block and tackle, had to 
pull and haul a long time, until, inch 
by inch, the boat finally heeled over, 
took water, and at last turned bottom 
up. Released, and in a second the 
' heavy keel flopped back the boat and in 
no uncertain manner—witness the 
splash! 

Further tests showed that it took 
39 men, standing on the rail of the 
boat, to bring it awash, and 49 men 
had to crowd into the hull w r hen it rode 
evenly to make it take water. The 
engine is so arranged that when the 
boat tips to such an angle that the 
men would be thrown out, the engine 
stops. This is in order to prevent in¬ 
jury by the propeller to anyone thrown 
into the water and also that, the boat. 


may lose headway to make it no harder 
than is necessary for the men to get 
back into the boat. The engine is 
protected in a compartment in the 
rear, so that it does not get needlessly 
wet, but all the working parts are so 
inclosed that salt w T ater does no dam¬ 
age. The engine is started, reversed 
and stopped by levers outside the com¬ 
partment partition. 

The safety and the speed of these 
boats are not their only advantages. 
In the lifeboat when the crew have to 
toil at the oars, but few hands are 
available to help shipwrecked persons 
into the boat or to make a safe landing 
beside a wreck. In the gasoline boat 
all the crew, save an engineer and the 
captain, are free from work, and ar¬ 
rive fresh and strong at a wreck, and 
can devote their entire time and atten¬ 
tion to saving the crew and passengers. 
Each boat is equipped with mast and 
sails to use as an auxiliary or in case 
of accident to the power. 

The limitations of the boat are only 
in the difficulty of launching—some 
sort of sheltered water of sufficient 
depth being essential, but it makes up 
for this in its increased radius, wffiich 
permits it to travel 50 miles to a 
wreck, if necessary, distancing the 
ordinary surf boat, which might be 
launched nearer the wreck. 

The cost? Eight thousand dollars 
for a new boat and $3,000 for putting 
an engine in and remodeling an exist¬ 
ing lifeboat—little money indeed, 
compared with the life of the craft and 
its activity and the service it renders.' 
The Life-Saving Service is enthusiastic 
about the possibilities and achieve¬ 
ments of the power craft. 










ENCYCLOPEDIA 


145 


RAISING ALLIGATORS IN INCUBATORS 



Fig. 1—The Incubator for Hatching. Fig. 2—Baby Alligators Just Hatched. Fig. 3—An Alligator 
Shooting the Chute. Fig. 4—A Scene at the Alligator Farm, Arkansas 


Of all the interesting uses to which 
incubators have been put that of 
hatching alligator eggs is probably the 
most unique. An Englishman at Hot 
Springs, Ark., is engaged in raising 
alligators for the market. The de¬ 
mand for the hides to use in manufac¬ 
turing purposes is constantly increas¬ 
ing, while parks and zoos buy the live 
reptiles for exhibition. 

More than 3,000,000 alligators were 
killed in Florida alone from 1890 to 
1900, and as they cannot be raised in 
captivity they are rapidly becoming 
extinct in this country. On the alli¬ 
gator farm, however, they have suf¬ 
ficient liberty to thrive. An alligator 
lays from 30 to 60 eggs, which are 
placed in the incubator, where they 
are hatched by the heat of the sun. 
Hence the condition of the weather de¬ 
termines the time of incubation, even 
in the incubator. All the young alli¬ 
gators of the same hatch are placed in 
one pen which is built to include part 
of an artificial lake, and in passing 
from one pen to another the visitor 
notices the increasing size of the 


reptiles until those 12 ft. in length are 
reached. 

Four ’gators each 8 ft. long have 
been trained to shoot the chute which 
they do by climbing to a platform 18 
ft. high, and at the word of command 
sliding down a 30-ft. chute into the 
water. 

-» • ♦- 

DIVERS SEARCH OCEAN BOTTOM 
FOR LOST MAILS 


Two hundred and ninety-nine big 
sacks of mail were lost when the “Da¬ 
kota” went down off the coast of 
Japan. Eighty bags floated ashore and 
were recovered by the postal officials 
who w r ere patroling the shore. Divers 
from the navy were sent down to 
search the vessel and the ocean bottom 
but failed to recover anything, as the 
sacks had floated aw T ay. 

The recovered mail was sent to 
Tokyo, where it was carefully dried 
and after inclosure in an official en¬ 
velope, forwarded to destination. Over 
20,000 letters and 533 registered pack¬ 
ages 'were thus dispatched. 


















140 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



MODERN CIVILIZATION IN RUSSIA.—“One Prefect has risen to the demands of 
modern life in Russia. The Prefect’s new automobile may be seen on the Nevsky Prospekt, 
steel-armoured like a cruiser, carrying its little quick-firer in a turret.”—Motor, London. 


MOVING HOUSE A MYSTERY 


Engineers, builders and scientists 
are alike baffled in ail attempts to ex¬ 
plain the mystery of the “moving 
house’ 7 in Berkeley, Cal. It is a neat 
two-story dwelling owned and occupied 
by Mr. W. C. Webb and his family. 
Soon after its completion, about a year 
ago, the house commenced moving, ap¬ 
parently of its own accord, and grad¬ 
ually moved toward the street until it 
had traveled a distance of 12 ft. A 
few weeks ago the movement ceased. 

The building has a strong concrete 
foundation which rests on apparently 
solid rock. The ground is perfectly 
level, and the change in position is not 
due to gravitation. The soil down to 
rock foundation is of a clayey nature. 

Strange to say, the house remains 
perfectly intact—has not cracked, and 
has not lost its exact perpendicular po¬ 
sition. Mr. Webb and his family have 



Traveling House 


not moved out of the building, as it 
seems entirely safe. However, should 
it begin to move again, they will va¬ 
cate. So slowly and easily has the 
house moved that the occupants could 
feel nothing peculiar. 

Dwellings stand on each side of this 
building, and singular to state, neither 
has “budged” the fraction of an inch 
from its foundations. Webb’s house 
has reached the inner edge of the side¬ 
walk. In his back yard there is a 
wide and deep—several yards—chasm 
extending clear across his lot; but no 
further earth disturbance has been 
manifested, except in fiont, where the 
sidewalk and street are bulged up a 
little. 

✓ 

- » • ♦- 


NEW PROCESS FOR ALUMINUM 


Although the cost of extracting 
aluminum by electrolysis has been re¬ 
duced from $8.00 to less than 40 cents 
a pound, there is a “long felt want” 
for a cheaper process. According to 
The Mechanical Engineer, London, 
that want is now met by a method 
which will make vast deposits of clay 
a source of boundless wealth and 
utility. In brief the new process is 
this: Obtain aluminum carbide by 
heating kaolin and carbon in an electric 
furnace. Then heat the aluminum 
carbide with alumina (oxide of alumi¬ 
num), which will yield carbonic acid 

gas and pure metal. 

-♦ • - 

The great Assouan dam, Egypt, will 
be raised 23 ft. at a cost of $7,500,000. 






















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


147 



A RENARD ROAD TRAIN now in service in England. Power from the motor car is 
transmitted by shafting to each trailer car, thus making each car self-propelling. 


STUDENT SHARPSHOOTERS 


A pleasing addition to collegiate 
contests of “brainstorm” and football 
is suggested by the executive commit¬ 
tee of the National Rifle Association of 
America. It is proposed to introduce 
rifle practice into all the educational 
institutions in the United States, with 
big intercollegiate and interscholastic 
shooting matches every spring. The 
first of these has already been an¬ 
nounced for June 21-22 at Creedmoor, 
N. Y., with a handsome intercollegiate 
trophy. The idea deserves enthusiastic 
support. To be the champion shot of 
the student body of the United States 
would certainly be an honor worth 
working for. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

RECLAIMING LUMBER FROM BOT= 
TOM OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER 


From near its source in northern 
Minnesota to La Crosse, Wis., a dis¬ 
tance of about 1,000 miles, the Mis¬ 
sissippi river flows over a corduroy bed 
composed of pine logs that have be¬ 
come watersoaked and sunk as they 
were being floated down stream, ac¬ 
cumulating there through 50 years of 
logging. Most of these logs are of the 
smaller variety, 8 or 10 in. at the butt, 
and known to lumbermen as “pig iron ’ 
Norway. It is now proposed to lift 
these logs from the river and recover 
the millions of feet of lumber they 
contain. Some of the best lumber has 
come from logs that have lain sub¬ 
merged through several decades and no 
matter how long sound pine logs 


remain under water they do not de¬ 
teriorate. 

The plan is to lift the logs with a 
hoisting engine erected on a flatboat, 
place them on the river bank and have 
a Government scaler inspect them and 
record the marks found. Where the 
original owner can be found, he will 
be compensated at the rate of $8 per 
thousand feet. This represents so 
much clear profit to the owner and 
leaves a margin of profit to the hoisters, 
who can readily dispose of the re¬ 
claimed logs at from $12 to $14 per 
thousand feet. 

-»-♦ ♦- 

A balloon occupied by two German 
aeronauts, ascending near Berlin, cov¬ 
ered the 812 miles’ distance to the Eng¬ 
lish coast in just 19 hours, or less time 
than required by ordinary methods of 
transportation. 

-» ♦ ♦- 



Courtesy Industrial Magazine. 

Making a 95-Ft. Fill on Union Pacific Near Omaha 






























148 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



Atlantic Uhck 


DSSOV.YMPIA 


ABSOLUTE SAFETY AT SEA 


Great Ships with Speed of Trains Predicted 
Within 25 Years 


Length. 1,200 ft. 

Breadth. 125 ft. 

Depth. 81 ft. 

Draught. 40 ft. 

Gross tonnage. 67,500 tons 

Passenger accommodation.... 6,700 

Engines. 170,000 hp. 

Speed per hour. 35 miles 

Cost.$17,000,000 

Sea travel, because of great ships 
and faultless navigation, will be made 
absolutely safe, predicts J. E. Oldham, 
a naval architect, writing in the Ameri¬ 
can Marine Engineer. The above fig¬ 
ures are his prediction of the popular 
ocean liner within the next 25 years. 
The ship will have a double shell 
throughout, as embodied in the struc¬ 
ture of the “Great Eastern.” He says: 

“In 25 years from this date a 
steamer approximately 1,200 ft. in 
length, 125 ft. in breadth and 81 ft. in 
depth will be afloat. This vessel will 
be designed for a reserve merchant 
cruiser. She will have a strong pro¬ 
tective deck and a complete double shell 
from keel to structural deck; her top 
sides externally will be of nickel steel, 
while the inner shell will be strongly 
built on the cellular system with steel 
of exceptional ductility to permit of a 
great degree of buckling without a 
fracture. 

“The bottom will also be sheathed 
with teak wood, which will permit of 
‘coppering 5 to avoid fouling and will 
add greatly to the safety of the ship 
in the event of grounding. 

“There will be two longitudinal and 
24 double transverse bulkheads extend¬ 
ing from the bottom to the structural 
deck, forming coffer dams, and without 
any doors or port openings, elevators 
and stairways being arranged in every 


compartment. The speed will be 30 
knots an hour, secured with improved 
turbine engines of 170,000 hp., driving 
five screw propellers. 

“There will be 60 boilers with 400,- 
000 ft. of heating surface, and 12 
smokestacks. A special feature of the 
general arrangement will be extra large 
pumping power, with boilers and 
pumps placed well above the load-water 
line. I propose that certain compart¬ 
ments containing 2,500 tons shall be 
kept full of water, so that in the event 
of grounding these compartments 
could be emptied in 12 minutes, which 
would in most cases of grounding en¬ 
able the ship to float off, as 2,500 tons 
would represent one foot draught of 
water.” 

To compensate for this loss in freight' 
tonnage an extra charge of $25 per pas¬ 
senger might be necessary, but there 
would doubtless be sufficient travel to 
provide it. With proper care in navi¬ 
gating the chief danger would be to 
smaller craft which might get in col¬ 
lision, for the big ship at full speed 
would exert an energy equal to 40 
railroad trains running at 60 miles an 
hour, or practically 3,250,000 foot- 
tons. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

Second Lieutenant E. E. W T . McCabe 
of the U. S. Cavalry will ride an 
Arabian stallion from Portland, Ore., 
to Hew York City, a distance of 3,181 
miles, to determine whether the breed 
has the endurance required for cavalry 
mounts. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

A gang of expert thieves stripped 
telephone poles of wire for a distance 
of three blocks in Chicago, recently, 
and secured in all about 600 lb. of 
copper. 























ENCYCLOPEDIA 


149 


BACHELOR OF AUTOMOBILING, 
NEW DEGREE? 


Cornell University is certainly up-to- 
date. For two years past the curricu¬ 
lum has contained courses in all things 
pertaining to autos under the direction 
of the most competent instructors ob¬ 
tainable. Anyone who may imagine 
that, because these courses are given in 
a college, they are necessarily imprac¬ 
tical, is altogether mistaken, for they 
include instruction in every possible 
detail of automobile construction, with 
history of each part and comparison of 
modern with obsolete forms, both 
American and foreign. Of course an 
important feature is the study of the 
gas engine and the chemical changes of 
combustion, with comparative efficiency 
of various fuels. 

After theories have been mastered, 
comes the course in practical applica¬ 
tion, each student making drawings of 
some special type of engine from the 
principles and formulae which he has 
learned. These drawings must include 
all details as to dimensions, material, 
fuel, finishing, etc., and be so complete 
that they could be sent to a foundry 
and used in actual construction work. 
Students are required also to test the 
leading makes of engines for different 
conditions of load, speed and fuel. 



Marks Places for Planting 


-♦ — » ♦- 

MAKING MAPLE SUGAR 


The manufacture of maple sugar is 
one of the important industries of Ver¬ 
mont, although there is made in Chi¬ 
cago every month as much so-called 
“maple” as the Green Mountain state 
can produce in a year. In Vermont 
the process has graduated from the 
scattered open kettles to a system in 



Scenes in Vermont Sugar Orchard 
























ENCYCLOPEDIA 


which the sap is collected in tanks on 
runners and hauled by team to the 
sugar house. The sap is transferred to 



A Sugar Pan 


other tanks by means of pipes. In 
fact the entire process has now been 
reduced to one in which hand labor is 
largely eliminated. It takes gal. 
of sap to make 1 lb. of sugar; a tree 
will yield from 15 to 30 gal. of sap 
annually. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

WHAT ABOUT DENATURED 
ALCOHOL? 


Well, what about it? 

The law removing the tax on alcohol 
which has been denatured, making it 
undrinkable but suitable for light, heat 
or power, went into effect January 
first—two months ago. 

To our knowledge only one large 
distillery—at Peoria, Ill.—is running 
on denatured, and the farmer who ex¬ 
pected to work up his frosted potatoes 
and decayed beets something after the 
fashion of apples in a hand cider press, 
is still feeding them to the pigs. It is 
given out that denatured can only be 
profitably produced in a big distillery 
costing thousands of dollars, and that 
the Standard Oil has arranged'to con¬ 
trol the output, making the retail price 
35 cents in order to protect the price 


of gasoline. Incidentally we learn that 
alcohol will be too expensive for the 
many domestic utilities and that the 
gasoline stove is to go on blowing up 
in the good old way. 

A large number of inquiries are 
coming to this magazine asking where 
denatured can be bought, and where 
can the writers procure the lamps, flat¬ 
irons, cookers, and other household 
conveniences which have long since be¬ 
come commonplace in Germany. 

In that country denatured alcohol 
costs 12 cents per gallon, and it is as 
easily obtained as kerosene here. How¬ 
ever there is no occasion for being dis¬ 
couraged; we have had it two months 
and Germany 12 years, and before long 
we shall have both the burners and 
the fuel. There are fine manufactur¬ 
ing opportunities for making these al¬ 
cohol burning utensils, as well as en¬ 
gines of both small and large power. 

Industrial locomotives for switching 
cars in factory yards are common in 
Germany, ranging from 6 hp. up. 
Such locomotives are also in operation 
in other countries, Peru for instance, 
has them, some of which are in use 
at the government arsenal. 

Before many years we, too, will en¬ 
joy the benefits of this safe, inexpen¬ 
sive and intense heat and light. 



In polishing metal parts with a sand blast 
the workman must protect his eyes and face 
from the flying particles which cut like 
knives. A glass window is provided in the 
helmet. 




















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


151 



MAIL COLLECTION BY AUTO 

Mail Faced for Cancelling in Car as Fast as Collected 


The efficiency of the U. S. postal 
service is to be increased as rapidly as 
possible by the introduction of auto¬ 
mobiles. The feasibility of the innova¬ 
tion has been demonstrated; first in 
Baltimore during last year, and re¬ 
cently in Milwaukee, since Feb. 20. 
The postmasters in both cities are en¬ 
thusiastic in their approval, and Wash¬ 
ington, Detroit and Louisville have 
been selected as the next places to re¬ 
ceive the improved service. 

In Milwaukee there are three ’of 
these cars, designed by Postmaster D. 
C. Owen, and leased to the department 
by the builders at $3,500 each per year. 
They are under a four years’ contract 
to furnish chauffeurs and keep the 
machines in first-class condition for 
ten hours’ work daily. The service has 
been highly satisfactory, the cars 
averaging 70 miles a day each, and col¬ 
lecting from 500 street boxes. 

Besides the chauffeur each car car¬ 
ries a collector, who takes up the mail 
and “faces” it ready for the cancelling 
machines immediately on arrival at the 
office. This means a great saving in 
time. The presence always of at least 
one man on the car will prevent rob¬ 


beries which occasionally occur while 

the collector enters an office building. 
-♦- 

FRENCH PILOT AUTO BOAT 


At the present moment there is spe¬ 
cial activity on the Seine in the trial 
of all kinds of motor boats. Their 
latest novelty is “Pilot I,” a 25-hp., 
kerosene-driven auto, constructed spe¬ 
cially for use as naval scout boat and 
in coastwise service requiring both 
speed and endurance. Consequently 
she is built strongly to stand buffeting; 



New Scout Boat 


completely decked, and made of steel 
throughout her 30 ft. of length. The 
screw is good for 600 revolutions a 
minute. 
















152 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


SCIENTIFIC CULTIVATION OF 
BACILLI 


Hundreds of scientists are engaged 
in the work of searching for the at 
present unknown germ which will kill 
some other deadly germ. Only the few 



Prof, von Behring 


privileged favorites ever see the secret 
workroom where the cultivation of the 
germs is carried on year after year. 

In one of the illustrations is seen 
the eminent scientist, Professor von 
Behring, seated in his bacilli breeding 
laboratory. The vessels on the shelves 
contain enough deadly germs to de¬ 
populate a big city. The other illus¬ 
trations show his assistants at work 
experimenting on living animals in 


the Institute for Hygiene and Thera¬ 
peutic Experiment, of which he is the 
director. 

-♦- - »- ♦- 

STREETCAR SAFETY DEVICE 


An ingenious device has been in¬ 
vented by an employee of the street 
railway in Denver and is being tested. 
Whenever a passenger stands on the 
lower step a buzzer sounds in the mo- 
torman’s compartment and warns him 
not to start the car until the signal 
ceases, which it does the instant the 
passenger reaches the platform or the 
ground. Contact points are placed in 
the step which are brought together by 
the weight of the passenger. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

$12,000,000 FOR A SHORT CUT 


There is no better illustration of the 
modern business axiom that time is 
money, than the big project undertaken 
by the Southern Pacific. In order ti, 
shorten its route across the Sierra Ne¬ 
vada and to avoid the steep grades, the 
railroad will soon begin boring a tun¬ 
nel through a spur of the mountains 
which will be 36,000 ft. long, require 
three years of hard work, and wipe 
out the tidy sum of twelve millions. 
It will be the biggest and dearest thing 
in that line on this side the world. 
The present route will be left un¬ 
touched and after the tunnel is finished 
will be reserved for slow, light traffic. 



Inoculating a Horse, Sheep and Calf 






















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


153 


THE TRUTH ABOUT BURNING ASHES 

Recurring Discovery That Comes to Light Periodically 


By Carl Shelley Miner, Director the Miner Laboratories, Chicago 


Some time ago an item purporting to be sent out from Altoona, Pa., ap¬ 
peared in the daily papers in which it was stated that a cobbler of that town 
had discovered a compound which, when mixed with ordinary ashes, made of them 
a fuel superior to the best anthracite coal. Shortly afterward a second item in¬ 
formed the public that the government had become so interested in the process 
that it had detailed several of its experts to make exhaustive tests of the cobbler’s 
marvelous compound. At about the same time, advertisements appeared in the 
papers offering for sale shares of stock in a company organized for the manufac¬ 
ture and sale of a compound which, when mixed with one part of coal and two 
parts of ashes, would produce from 50 to 150 per cent more heat than could be 
secured from the best coal. TJp to this time the story had appeared to be only 
the joke of some clever correspondent. When it came to the point of selling 
stock, the matter assumed definite shape and the public became interested. The 
papers published a formula purporting to be that of the notorious cobbler, and 
chemists and technical men everywhere have been bombarded with questions re¬ 
garding the process and its possibilities. Dozens of people over the country 
have experimented with it in their own stoves and furnaces, and many of them 
have, no doubt, considered their results as warranting a favorable opinion of the 
process. It is in order to make clear to the readers of Popular Mechanics certain 
facts chemical and practical in regard to this problem that this article is written. 

The published formula is as follows: “Common salt, 1 lb.; oxalic acid, 2 
oz.; water, 1 gal.; mix and moisten a mixture containing one part coal and 
three parts ashes, and a better fuel than pure coal is obtained.” The advertise¬ 
ments assert that two tons of ashes mixed with 20 cents’ worth of this compound 
and one ton of coal will produce more heat than five tons of the best fuel. 

Let me begin the discussion by stating explicitly that you cannot burn ashes. 
Ashes are a mineral matter which has absolutely no fuel value. Ordinary ashes, 
however, contain a small amount of unburned coal, and this coal can be burned 
under proper conditions. Ashes and coal are of variable composition, but, for 
the purpose of this discussion, we will assume that ordinary hard coal contains 
10 per cent of ash, by which we mean absolutely incombustible material; and 
the ashes from a well-regulated furnace contain *25 per cent of unburned coal, 
which is a liberal estimate. There would then remain 13^ per cent of “ashes,” 
of which 3^ would be coal and 10 per cent genuine ash. Therefore the loss if 
these ashes are thrown away is 3^ per cent of the coal used. In the form of a 
table this statement appears as follows: 


Coal contains— 

Combustible material . 

Incombustible material or ash 
Ashes contain— 

Combustible material . 

Incombustible material . 


. '.)() per cent 

.;. 10 per cent 

25. per cent, equivalent to 3% per cent of the coal used 
75 per cent, equivalent to 10 per cent of the coal used 


So. if we admit that this method will enable us to burn all the coal in the 
ashes, and that is the limit of its possibilities, we may hope to save 1/33 of our 
coal bills. The advocates of this formula cannot claim that it contains any heat- 
producing material except the oxalic acid, and that is present in so small a 
quantity as to be negligible in making this calculation. The water and salt have 









101 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


no fuel value. There is, therefore, absolutely no basis for the claim that as^es 
and coal mixed with this compound are a better fuel than coal alone. 

This is not by any means the first attempt to produce a compound that will 
increase the combustion of coal in stoves or furnaces. Some years ago a combus¬ 
tion powder for this purpose was exploited in Germany, which appeared to be 
a great success, for when it was thrown into a fire the flame brightened up at 
once and appeared to burn more briskly. The unsympathetic government chem¬ 
ists, however, analyzed the powder and, finding it to be only common table salt, 
branded the whole thing as a fake. The salt is retained in the present formula. 
There have, however, been formulae devised more satisfactory than that one. The 
basis of all of them is some material which will release oxygen, the gas necessary 
to promote combustion, in close proximity to the coal in the ashes. This result 
is obtained by mixing the ground ashes with the compound before putting them 
into the furnace. In the cobbler’s formula the oxalic acid is probably intended 
to furnish oxygen. It contains oxygen, but it also contains carbon and hydrogen 
in amounts more than sufficient to combine with its oxygen, and it therefore 
uses up oxygen instead of furnishing it. The water is the only constituent of 
any possible value in this formula. It is composed of hydrogen and oxygen and 
at high temperatures breaks up into these two gases and so might furnish oxygen 
for the combustion of the coal in the ashes with which it has been mixed. 

The scheme of mixing water with ashes to burn the coal out of them has 
been known for years and has been used by householders all over the country. It 
is covered by a United States patent for “a method of producing complete com¬ 
bustion by mixing a finely divided substance with water and introducing the 
same into a furnace with a heat independent of that produced by combustion of 
the mixture.” Comparative tests made with ashes mixed with water and ashes 
mixed according to the cobbler formula show practically identical results. In 
both cases there was left about 7 per cent of unconsumed coal in the ashes. It 
therefore seems clear from both theory and practice that there is no new and 
useful improvement covered bv this formula, but it is, as might have been 
expected, merely a rehashing of an old and time-tried method. 

The probability is that neither method has any real value, but that the 
results obtained are due entirely to the repeated burning to which the ashes are 
subjected. It is reasonable to assume that if the ashes are fed back into the fur¬ 
nace often enough, with plenty of fresh coal, the coal in them will eventually be 
consumed. 

It may be as well to say a word in regard to propositions of this kind in 
general. The cheapest form of fuel is coal. The best way to get the heat out 
of it is to burn it, that is, to combine it with oxygen, and the cheapest form of 
oxygen is the oxygen in the air. 

The addition of wonderful compounds does not increase the heating power 
of coal, nor does it ever furnish a cheaper source of oxygen than the oxygen 
of the air. Keep these facts well in mind and do not allow yourself to be misled 

by bright flames or clever advertising matter. 

-♦ ♦ - 

What Niagara Falls Costs. —To an electrical engineer the beauty of 
the falls is somewhat dimmed as he reflects that the 3,500,000 hp. is worth more 
than $100,000,000 a year. 

- » ♦ ♦ - 

A Genuine “Trouble” Line.— To avoid a personal conference the Shah 
has had a telephone line built from his palace to the public square for the use 
of subjects having grievances to present. When he gets enough troubles for 
one day he gives the “busy” signal. The Czar might profitably employ a few 
thousand miles of wire in the same way. 




ENCYCLOPEDIA 


155 


HOW PAINT IS MADE 

An American Industry—Few People Realize Its Magnitude 


By J. Oliver Curwood 


Of all those products with which 
America has taken the lead in the 
struggle of nations for industrial su¬ 
premacy paint is one of the least 
known, so far as its making is con¬ 
cerned, and almost without knowing it 
the people of this country have had de¬ 
veloped under their very eyes an in¬ 
dustry which had the honor of being 
spoken of in Congress recently as “a 
rival of the steel industry so far as 
rapid growth is concerned, an industry 
which is of incalculable value to this 
country, and one which should be pro¬ 
tected and encouraged by every manner 
of means.’ 7 

This was spoken apropos of a move¬ 
ment to have distributed throughout 
the country millions of pamphlets, en¬ 
couraging home owners to care for 

O O 


their buildings, and telling them how 
to do it, just as the Government is giv¬ 
ing in this same way its advice and 
support to the nation’s farmers. 

As in nearly everything else, me¬ 
chanical and inventive genius have 
placed the United States at the head 
of all other nations in the manufac¬ 
ture of paint. America is the home of 
“templates,” of standardized screws, 
bolts, rivets, etc. The Yankee mind 
is given to short cuts. From machin¬ 
ery it cuts away useless metal, needless 
wheels, superfluous parts. It rejoices 
in new and better ways of doing old 
things. That is why American en¬ 
gineers were ready to guarantee the 
completed Nile bridge in less than one- 
fourth the time and at a much lower 
cost than the English builders. And 



























156 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


that is why this country has today be¬ 
come the “paint pail of the world”— 
so quickly, too, that Americans them¬ 
selves hardly realize the fact. 

In 1860 there was not a gallon of 
machine-made paint in the world. To¬ 
day there are 250 paint factories in 
this country. They represent a capital 
of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars. 
Last year they produced 80,000,000 
gal. of paints, and the steadily grow¬ 
ing demand, especially from abroad, 
where the superiority of American 
paint is as conceded as that of Amer¬ 
ican steel, it is expected will bring 
this year’s product up to 100,000,000 
gal. American machinery has made 
this tremendous output possible. It 
has also made it possible for the home 
owner to go to a store and pick from 
a shelf any tint or variety of paint he 
wishes, a gallon costing him less today 
than a gill of drying oil would have 
cost a century or so ago. 

There is not one person in ten thou¬ 
sand who knows how paint is made to¬ 
day; not one in that number who 
knows that white lead is only one of 
several valuable bases, and that mod¬ 
ern scientists have discovered other and 
equally good things to take the place 
of turpentine in many paints, which 
will soon be so scarce and high that 
were it exclusively used in paint manu¬ 
facture a gallon would cost several 
times what it does now. This fact 
brings us to the first step in modern 
paint making—the work of the scien¬ 
tific department. Every big paint fac¬ 
tory has its laboratory, which is 
equipped with as high-priced men and 
apparatus as the scientific department 
of a pharmaceutical concern. These 
men, over 1,000 of them in this coun¬ 
try, are constantly at work striving to 
make their products better and cheaper 
for the public at the same time, for in 
no other industry is competition be¬ 
tween manufacturers more keen. No 
sooner does one firm put out a new 
paint than it is analyzed by its rival 
firms, and the good qualities of the 
new paint are incorporated in their 
own. To this department of a paint 


factory first comes all of the material 
which is to go into paint. In a big 
room is a miniature paint plant. There 
are miniature grinders and mixers in 
which only half a pint of paint can be 
made at a time. A certain batch of 
material comes in. It is first proved 
in this miniature factorv, and if the 
chemists say it is all right, the mate¬ 
rial goes to the factory proper. 

First the “base” is made. Perhaps 
half a barrel of zinc white, white lead, 
or some other base substance is dumped 
into one of the big, churn-like mixers. 
To this is added linseed oil. Then the 
“churn” is set in action, and steel pad¬ 
dles begin whipping the mixture. This 
“churn” looks like a simple invention, 
yet it is a product of the last ten years 
in its perfected form, and its existence 
has lowered the price of paint a half. 
For an hour its paddles stir the base. 
Then this base, after coloring matter 
has been added to it (if a colored paint 
is desired), is slowly run into a grind¬ 
ing machine. 

Paint is a combination consisting of 
finely ground pigments suspended in a 
liquid menstruum, and the more finely 
the pigments are ground the better the 
paint. Because of this it may be safe¬ 
ly said that this “mixer” is the inven¬ 
tion which has made America the 
“paint pail” of the world. While the 
paint makers of other countries were 
grinding their dry colors in oil with 
slab and muller this piece of machinery 
was creating new paint factories all 
over the United States. Imagine two 
huge steel “grindstones” fitted close 
one upon another, and revolving slowdv 
in opposite directions with tremendous 
pressure from both below and above, 
and you have a good idea of a grind¬ 
ing machine. Between the surfaces 
of these “stones” the paint slowly runs 
until the pigments are ground to micro¬ 
scopic fineness. When it oozes from 
between them it has had brought upon 
it a grinding pressure of several tons, 
and is in its finished form. Linseed oil 
and turpentine or some other thinner 
is then added to it in other “mixers,” 
when it is ready to be placed in cans. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


157 



Fig. 1=-New Portable Revolving Bed Chaser or Pan Mill. Fig. 2==Three Roller Mills. Fig. 3=-White 
Lead and Color Mixers. Fig. 4==Collapsible Tube Filler. Fig. 5==Eccentric Varnish Cutter and Mixer. 
Fig. 6==Color Mills. Fig. 7==lnk Mixer 


It is pointed out that in other ways 
than its actual product is the paint in¬ 
dustry valuable to the country. For 
instance, it has increased the produc¬ 
tion of flaxseed from 10,000,000 to 35,- 
000,000 bu. annually, and it has in¬ 
creased the annual smelter output of 
pig lead from 200,000 to 350,000 tons 
a. year. It is also offering unexcelled 
opportunities for young men. So rap¬ 
idly 'has the industry grown, and so 
fast is it developing at the present 
time, that it is difficult to secure a suf¬ 
ficient number of the right sort of 
men. Scientific care is necessary in 
the making of American paint, and 
thousands of young men are now work¬ 
ing from department to department of 
the country's paint factories in order 
that thev may he given a thorough un¬ 
derstanding of the business. Nearly 
every big factory tutors many of its 
employes in this way, and it is frankly 
conceded by them that within a few 
months these men are earning wages 


which it would take them years to ar¬ 
rive at in nearly all other manufactur¬ 
ing occupations. Even at this the con¬ 
stant cry of paint manufacturers is 
“Men—men—we want men.” 

That the paint industry is bound to 
be one of the two or three biggest 
things in the country seems evidenced 
by the investigations of those who favor 
the “pamphlet education” scheme, 
which show that there are about 5,000,- 
000 property owners in the United 
States whose loss through not properly 
caring for the exteriors of their build¬ 
ings is about $35,000,000 a year. 
When these are added to those who al¬ 
ready use paint, and when the con¬ 
stantly increasing foreign demand is 
taken into account, it is pretty safe to 
say that the paint making business will 
increase in prodigious leaps during the 
next three or four years. 

-♦- 

Ice from frozen sea water is fresh. 
































158 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


LOCOMOTIVE COLLIDES WITH 
ITS OWN BOILER 


The strangest freak of all the queer 
accidents in the line of railroad col¬ 
lisions happened recently on the South¬ 
ern Pacific near Gilroy, Cal. A loco- 



A Freak Wreck 


motive actually collided with its own 
boiler. 

The locomotive was a mammoth one 
of the Atlantic type and was hauling a 
passenger train at the time the huge 
boiler exploded with a noise heard for 
miles around. The boiler went up 
into the air and landed on the track 
200 ft. ahead, leaving the trucks, 
drivers and engine frame. The boiler 
fell in time to be run into by the re¬ 
maining portions of the locomotive, 
which were carried forward bv the mo- 
mentum of the train, which after shov¬ 
ing the boiler a short distance came 
to a stop. The engineer, fireman and 
superintendent of block signals riding 
in the cab were all killed. The acci¬ 
dent occurred in the night. The illus¬ 
tration is from a photograph taken the 
next morning. 

-♦—■ 

BURY OUR GOLD IN GUAM 


Among the natives of Guam, Amer¬ 
ican gold coin is held in high esteem 
—at a high premium. So high, in 
fact, that whenever the natives get 
hold of a gold piece they proceed at 
once to bury it, thus withdrawing it 


from circulation. It is for this reason 
that the governor of the island has 
very recently requested the Navy De¬ 
partment to send only currency instead, 
in bills of the denomination of $1, $2 
and $5. Fifty thousand dollars in 
bills, as requested, will be sent soon to 
the island by the Government trans¬ 
port sailing from San Francisco. 

Guam is between Hawaii and Japan, 
where a United States coaling station 
is maintained. 

- ♦ ♦ ♦ - 

A TELESCOPE LINE 


A simple system of observing objects 
and places concealed at a distance is 
being demonstrated in Massachusetts. 
By this means it is expected that a 
manager, for instance, can sit in his 
office and actually see what is going 
on in any department of a large works. 
If the plan succeeds it will be possi¬ 
ble for a central office to watch the in¬ 
terior of all the banks in a city. 

The system consists of tubes or pipes 
with branch tubes proceeding from the 
main tubes at angles, and mirrors for 
reflecting the rays of light from one 
tube to the other. 

At the observing end a pair of field 
glasses magnifies the reflected image 
where the distance requires it. The 



The Observing Instrument 

















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


159 


pipes can be laid underground, and 
through walls, or wherever necessary 
to secure the desired connections. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

REMARKABLE STEEL CASTING 


This is not the 
picture of a devil-fish 
swallowing a man, 
but of a cutter for a 
government suction 
dredge, for which we 
are indebted to cour- 
tesv of the American 

V 

Machinist. The man 
in the case empha¬ 
sizes the size of this 
huge steel casting, of 
which the height is 6 
ft. and the diameter 

ft. The difficulties 
of so large a steel 
casting can hardly be appreciated out¬ 
side the foundry. When the metal was 
ready to pour, the mold represented 19 
cores rammed up in a flask 12x12x11 ft. 
Almost 4 weeks were spent in assemb¬ 
ling the parts. The casting was a per¬ 
fect success, showing neither settles nor 
shrinkage cracks. The casting weighs 
10,540 lb. 

-♦ • ♦-- 

DIGGING COAL WITH A DREDGE 


What is the use of picking coal out 
of the bowels of the earth when all 
that is needed is a No. 6 sand pump 
attached to a 13-hp. portable engine 
on a raft and a scow on which to load 
the coal? That is the way they do it 
on the Susquehanna, 16 miles above 
Harrisburg, to the tune of 25,000 tons 
of the best quality of anthracite year¬ 
ly. The same is now being done at 
other points along the river. 

The explanation of this apparent 
marvel is quite simple. The anthracite 
is a fine deposit, which has been 
washed down by freshets from the coal 
and culm piles along the banks, and it 
ranges from pea to buckwheat size, 
with a little chestnut. These deposits 
are of exceptionally fine quality, for 


the down stream motion has a sifting 
action, separating slate from coal, be¬ 
cause the former is too flat to be car¬ 
ried readily by the water. The deposits 
collect especially in eddies, on sand¬ 
bars and below bridge piers. 


TO TELL THE AGE OF AN EGG 


A fresh egg will sink when placed 
in water and rest on its side; if three 
weeks old it will incline slightly with 
the small end down; if three months 
old it will stand on the small end, and 



if older it will float with large end out 
of water more or less, according to 
age. 



Height, 6 Ft.; Diameter, 7 % Ft.; Weight, 10,540 Lb. 



























ENCYCLOPEDIA 


IfiO 


COIN COUNTING MACHINE 


The illustration shows a new Eng¬ 
lish machine which automatically 
counts coins and rolls them securely in 
a paper wrapper. The coins are 



Counts and Wraps the Coins in Strong Packages 


emptied into the hopper at the top 
and come out counted and wrapped at 
the bottom as fast as six men could do 
the work by hand. The machine can¬ 
not make a miscount. It is operated 
by an electric motor. 

-♦ • ♦ - 

BIG SCHOONER HAS GAS EN= 
GINES 


26.6 ft. Her masts are 161 ft. high; 
her cargo, 3,000 tons. 

One 500-hp. gasoline engine gives 
the schooner 5 knots an hour in calm 
weather. Another smaller gas engine 
lights the vessel and furnishes an 
electric searchlight which is something 
unusual for sailing craft; and still 
another engine hoists the sails and 
anchors, and hoists the cargo in and 
out of the five hatches. 

The success of the “Northland” is 
likely to be immediately followed by 
the construction of many others using 
gasoline engine auxiliaries. 

-»—o-♦- 

NEW COAL FIELD; 24 FT. THICK 


The day when all the coal shall have 
been burned up has received another 
big postponement. Word comes from 
England of the discovery of a mam¬ 
moth coal seam, 24 ft. thick, and cov¬ 
ering 2,000 acres, in South Stafford¬ 
shire. To be sure, it is rather deep— 
1,750 ft.—but that difficulty will be 
overcome by means of new machinery, 
both hydraulic and electric. The cages 
will be lifted by hydraulic power ac¬ 
cording to designs which will combine 
the best features of American, English 
and German machinery. Lighting and 
hauling will be done by electricity. By 
these improved methods it is expected 
to obtain an output which will beat all 



The old time mariner 
refuses to compromise 
and allow either a steam 
or gasoline auxiliary en¬ 
gine. He wants all sails 
or all power. The idea 
is losing ground, how¬ 
ever, and recent ship 
construction has demon¬ 
strated the advantages of 
a gasoline engine for use 
when little or no wind 
prevails. One of these 
vessels, the “Northland,” 
plying along the Atlantic 
coast, is a 4-masted 
schooner spreading 9,000 
ft. of canvas; her dimensions are: 
Length, 242 ft.; breadth, 44 ft.; depth, 


The New Way—Power and Wind 

to 

records—3,200 tons in 8 hours—and 
keep 2,000 miners busy. 









ENCYCLOPEDIA 


161 

DELIVERS MAIL AT 70 MILES AN HOUR 



“Welcome the Coming: Speed the Parting” Sack 


The new mail handling 
invention shown in the ac¬ 
companying photograph will 
both receive and deliver mail 
sacks at the same moment, 
and, with this task accom¬ 
plished, automatically swing 
on its own axis out of the 
way of trains which follow. 

The Government insists that 
a mail-catching device shall 
be equal to the task of being 
operated while the trains are 
running at a speed as high 
as 60 miles an hour. Tests 
of this machine have proven 
that it will receive and de¬ 
liver mail to trains running 
at all the different speeds up 
to 70 miles an hour. As 
shown in the photo, the ma¬ 
chine is equipped with a 
kind of reversible cradle of 
steel wires which hangs from 
a crane and the crane in turn 
is suspended from a swivel post. An¬ 
other important feature of this inven¬ 
tion is found in the fact that it holds 
the mail pouch which is received by it 
tightly, thus avoiding any possibility 
of its falling under the train wheels. 

-» - ♦ ♦- 

LIABILITY FOR “LARCHMONT” 
WRECK ONLY $103.12 


Don't get drowned; it is better to be 
killed on a railroad—that is, it is bet¬ 
ter for your family. Owing to a 
peculiar Federal law the liability of a 
steamship company for a disaster is 
limited to the value of the wreck. The 
Joy Line, to which the steamer be¬ 
longed, has filed a petition under this 
law, setting forth that the wreck has 
not been located, that the total value 
of the property recovered from it is 
only $103.12, and asking that their 
liability be limited to that amount. 
That would produce 56 cents for the 
heirs of each of the 183 persons lost. 


We suggest that the Joy Line should 
change its name, which it will prob¬ 
ably be glad to do after reading the 
following newspaper dispatch : 

“The wreck of the steamer “Larchmont” 
has been found by a fisherman off Watch Hill, 
It. I. It has been sought for more than a 
month, and the United States revenue cutter 
“Cactus” will proceed to the spot and en¬ 
deavor to recover any bodies which may still 
remain in the wreck.” 

--♦- 

UNITED STATES NEGLECTS 
ARSENIC PRODUCTION 


Over half the world’s production of 
metallic arsenic, white arsenic, and ar¬ 
senic sulphides is utilized by the 
United States, the supply coming 
largely from England, Germany, Spain 
and Canada. There are extensive de¬ 
posits of arsenical ores i:i this country, 
and every year several hundred tons of 
arsenic sulphide, obtained in purifying 
sulphuric acid at chemical manufac¬ 
turing works, are wasted by burial; 
yet we remain dependent on foreign 
countries for our supply. 

















162 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



ELECTRIC BOUQUET A NOVELTY 


A pleasing electric novelty which 
any electrician can easily make is the 
electric bouquet. The idea is suited to 
many occasions, such as receptions, 
weddings and presentations. In a 
large bouquet or design of natural flow¬ 
ers are placed small incandescent 
lamps, either white or colored, ar¬ 
ranged in the form of letters to pro¬ 
duce either initials or words. For ex¬ 
ample, on the recent occasion of a 
reception given by his employes to their 
manager on his return from a long ab¬ 
sence a mammoth bouquet of roses was 
presented to him, in the middle of 
which glowing in s<5ft colors was the 
word “Welcome.” Current was taken 
from a wall bracket through a flexible 
cord 20 ft. long, which permitted the 
bouquet to be carried about the room. 
-» ♦ ♦- 

AN EARTHQUAKE HOUSE 


It is to be built in Kingston, Ja¬ 
maica, of drain pipes set on end and 
filled with cement, faced on the out¬ 
side with cement and on the inside 
with thin wood. To one who has never 
“quaked” it would seem that a house 


of solid concrete -would be far more 
likely to withstand shocks, and still 
better would be the light frames which 
they put up in Japan, but a man who 
has been there says it’s all right. He 
ought to know, for he is Col. H. E. C. 
Kitchener, oldest brother of Lord 
Kitchener, and a resident of Kings¬ 
ton. His house was badly damaged by 
the last shake, and he is now in Eng¬ 
land buying materials for the above 
mentioned style of house, so as to be 
ready for the next one. 

-♦ ♦ ■■■♦— 

SUBWAY IN TOKIO? 


In their omnivorous appetite for 
everything “Western” the Japs are 
eager to add underground railways to 
the large collection which they already 
possess. So far, however, the subway 
is “all in the air,” for the company is 
not even formed. If it materializes, 
the distance is to be 12 miles and the 
fare 2J cents. 

Meanwhile the Tokio Electric Tram¬ 
way Co. is trying to get permission to 
add 60 miles to its line. 

-♦ ♦- 

MAXIM’S LATEST PEACE PER- 
SUADER 


It has been predicted that the more 
highly perfected became the weapons 
of destruction, the more unlikely would 
the nations be to resort to war. If that 
is so Hudson Maxim, the well known 
inventor of high explosives, is a uni¬ 
versal benefactor. His latest peace- 
persuaders are “stabilite” and a perfect 
time fuse. Stabilite is a new smokeless 
powder having certain advantages over 
the usual smokeless — it will not 



Seven Stages in the Manufacture of a One-Piece Collar Button 













































































































encyclopedia 


16 :j 


decompose; is not affected by impuri¬ 
ties; can be used as soon as made. By 
the time fuse a shell may be caused to 
explode after passing through any 
thickness of armor, making most of 
the crew permanently peaceable. 

Mr. Maxim insists that the United 
States would be practically defenseless 
in case of war with any first-class 
power. 

-♦—♦- 

WELLMAN ARCTIC BALLOON TO 
SAIL THIS MONTH 


The Wellman balloon, “America,” 
for Arctic exploration has been en¬ 
tirely rebuilt, nothing of the first con¬ 
struction remaining save the gas bag 
and a single motor, and is now en route 
for Dane’s Island, north of Spitzbergen 
and only 600 miles from the Pole. 
Only Felix Riesenberg, of Chicago, and 
two Norwegian companions remained 
at the headquarters in the frigid zone 
the past winter, during which time 
communication has been entirely cut 
off. Much depends on whether Mr. 
Wellman finds the big balloon house 
erected last summer still standing. If 
the winter storms have wrecked it, 
another will have to be built. 

-» -♦ ♦- 

A FOLDING UMBRELLA 


The latest Paris fad in umbrellas is 
one which folds up in a case which 
can be carried in the pocket of an ordi¬ 
nary coat. The illustrations show the 
case, umbrella half opened and also 



ready for use. The handle telescopes 
and the ribs are hinged to fold several 
times. The umbrella can also be used 
as a cane. 

-♦ ♦- 

TAXIMETER COMPUTES CAB 
FARES 


With the advent of an}* mechanism 
which shall fix the fare due at the end 
of a cab-ride, one of the chief diver¬ 



Registers Everything but ‘‘Tips" 

sions of Cabby will be gone. But cab- 
riders will rejoice with exceeding great 

j°y- 

Across the sea comes news of the 
general adoption of a “taximeter” for 
every hired vehicle in Paris, its adop¬ 
tion ordered in London after June 1, 
and now one forerunner of this peace¬ 
preserving innovation is exciting much 
interest in New York City. 

Without going too far into details, 
it may be said that the French device 
displays on its face, in plain view of 
the traveler, the fare due as fast as it 
accumulates, and this goes on just the 
same when the cab is standing still for 
a call and whether it travels fast or 
slow. The machine is operated by 


Folds to Pocket Size 


















164 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


\ 


/ 


clock work and connection with one 
wheel, and is sealed so its mechanism 
cannot be tampered with. 

- ♦ • ♦ -- 

FILE WITH CIRCULAR TEETH 


A new style of file comes from Lon¬ 
don, for which several good things are 
claimed. From the accompanying cut 


Courtesy Buaehinery 

The New File 

it looks reasonable that this file should 
be self-cleaning, the chips being pushed 
continually toward the outer edge. The 
grooves are so deejD that they cut with¬ 
out slipping and last longer without 
sharpening, which can be done much 
below the usual cost because of the sim¬ 
ple shape of the teeth. It is claimed 
to work well on all metals and even 
marble. 

-♦ ♦ ♦-- 

PROMOTION OF THE DEAD 


All the 107 men whose bodies were 
found in or near the hulk of the bat- 


its magazines when the ship was in 
dry dock at Toulon. Only 58 of the 
bodies have been identified, so that the 
chief significance of the promotion lies 
in the fact that the widows and other 
relatives will receive higher pensions in 
consequence of the promotions. 

-♦ — » ♦-- 

38 1=2 MILES AN HOUR BY AUTO 


That was the average speed made by 
M. Sorel, from Paris to Nice, in a 
60-hp. car. Done on a wager, full 
time, 16J hours. 

-♦—•—$- 

BIGGEST WHISTLE IN THE WORLD 


The biggest steam whistle in the 
world is on a street railway power 
house at East St. Louis, Ill. It is a 
three-chime and can be heard 20 miles. 
It takes half a ton of coal to produce 
the steam necessary to blow the whistle 
one minute. The “whistle” is reallv 
three whistles, the largest of which is 
nearly 6 ft. high and almost as large 
around as a man. It has connection 
to an electric clock regulated by Wash¬ 
ington time and is blown for 10 sec¬ 
onds at 7 a. m., 12 noon and 6 p. m. 
-♦- 

RAISING A SUNKEN BOAT 




Trying to Be a Submarine 

tleship “Jena” have been promoted. 
It will be recalled that the “Jena” was 
wrecked recently by the explosion of 


The screw propeller 
“Minnie M.,” in sum¬ 
mer service on Georgian 
Bav, filled with water 
while at her winter 
dock, sunk and then 
rolled over on her side. 
The boat was raised by 
coffer-damming the en¬ 
gine and boiler room 
and the hatches, and 
while the pumps were 
removing the water five 
heavy lines were carried 
to blocks fastened on 
shore. As the water 
was pumped out the 
boat gradually righted herself and was 
taken to the repair docks under her 
own steam. 





















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


165 


NEW RAILROAD DANGER SIGNAL 

By Which Train Dispatcher Can Warn Engineer of Moving Train 


» 


Signal R.il 


Closed 


Open 



Courtesy Electrical Engineering, London 


A new system of signals has been 
installed on 22 miles of the Great 
Western Railway of England. It sig¬ 
nals the engineer of a train while run¬ 
ning at full speed between stations. 
A section of third rail 60 ft. long, 
called a ramp, is placed in the middle 
of the track at intervals of each half 
mile. A contact shoe suspended from 
the locomotive makes contact with 
each ramp as the train passes. Elec¬ 
tric wires connect the ramps with the 
telegraph office in the company’s sig¬ 
nal towers. The operator can thus 

* 



cause the signal box in front of the 
engineer to ring a bell to indicate a 
“clear” track, or blow a whistle and 
show the word “danger.” 

-» ♦ ♦-- 

FIFTY MILES TO THE MOON 


So far as seeing it is concerned. 
Thanks to Mr. John D. Hooker, a 
philanthropist living at Los Angeles, 
we may some day see photographs of 
the moon’s surface distinguishing ob¬ 
jects 100 ft. apart. In other words, 
anything they have up there half as 
long as the capitol building will be 
plainly discernible. All this and many 
greater wonders will be brought about 
by means of a 100-in. mirror, which 
will be mounted in the Carnegie In¬ 
stitution’s new solar observatory on 
Mount Wilson, Southern California. 
But it is several years in the,future, for 
first a 4J-ton block of glass, 13 in. 
thick, must be cast without crack or 
blemish, and then four vears must be 
consumed in just grinding and polish¬ 
ing it. The cost of the big mirror and 
its smaller auxiliaries will be $45,000. 
A lens of equal size costs $1,000,000. 


Contact Shoe is at the Right 























166 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



Courtesy St, Ry, Journal 

ELEVATED RAILROAD BUILT OF CONCRETE 


The feature of greatest popular in¬ 
terest on the new electric railroad from 
Richmond, Va., to Chesapeake Bay is 
the elevated part, 2,800 ft. long, where 
the road enters Richmond from the 
north. The height of the structure 
varies from 18 to 70 ft. 

The plan of a riveted girder viaduct 
was rejected on the ground of expense, 
a wooden trestle was considered too 
temporary and too liable to destruction 
by fire, so concrete reinforced by steel 
was adopted. The cement used was of 
the best grade and the stone was gran¬ 
ite crushed and thoroughly screened to 
1 in. Granite dust was substituted for 
sand, being found to have 20 to 50 per 
cent more tensile strength. The mix¬ 
ture was in proportion of 1:2:4, and 
was calculated to stand a compressive 
stress of 500 lb. per sq. in. and a shear 
of 50 lb. All concrete was required to 
go into the molds within 15 minutes of 
mixing. After removing the molds 
small holes were filled with a 1:2 mor¬ 
tar and finished off with cement and 
sand laid on with a brush. 

The spans of the viaduct vary from 
23 ft. 6 in. to 67 ft. 5 in., the longest 
spans being over streets. They were 
planned to support a train weighing 
150,000 lb., and expansion is provided 
for at intervals of 200 ft. by means of 
sliding joints. The track rests on oak 
ties, and these on pine stringers which 
rest directly upon the concrete girders. 
At intervals of 5 ft. a f-in. bolt, sunk 


9 in. into the concrete, passes up 
through stringer and tie, and half way 
between these long bolts are short bolts 
which go through the stringer only. 
-♦---♦■ ♦- 

LOBBYING WITH AUTOMOBILES 


The Wisconsin legislature threat¬ 
ened to pass a law reducing the speed 
limit of automobiles below 12 miles in 
towns and 20 miles in the country. To 
demonstrate that such action was un¬ 
necessary several leading owners of 
fast cars took the lawmakers out for a 
spin of 30 minutes each, during which 
the cars were driven at speeds rang¬ 
ing all the way up to 40 miles an hour. 
Each machine was equipped with 
recording instruments. The tests in¬ 
cluded emergency stops and other feat¬ 
ures of control. 

-» ♦- 

MAKING STEEL EXPERTS 


The Bethlehem Steel Works pro- 

.I. 

poses to furnish a course of free in¬ 
struction for 3,000 young men, with a 
view to making them experts in the 
manufacture of steel. About 200 have 
already accepted the offer, and al¬ 
though the works are near Pittsburg, 
not one student came from that city. 
More than half of these ambitious boys 
are of German descent, one-fourth are 
Irish, and only one-fifth “strictly 
American”—whatever that may be. 


















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


167 


LOCOMOTIVE AND STEAMER IN 
COLLISION 


The cobbler should stick to bis last 
and a boat should stay in the water— 
seems to be the moral of a queer acci¬ 
dent which occurred near Beulah, 
Mich. A small steamer was trying to 
play turtle by getting across country 
with the help of several men, horses 
and bobsleighs. At the crossing of the 
Ann Arbor railroad the boat was near¬ 
ly safe, when the men were terrified 
by the approach of an express train 
threatening them in the darkness. In 
an instant there was a terrific crash¬ 
ing and splintering, with wild jump¬ 
ing from both boat and train. Net re¬ 
sults : A sternless boat, a pilotless en¬ 
gine, a speechless crowd, and no one 
killed. 

- »--» +-- 

THE BATTLE OF THE AIR 


The dove pf peace seeking an olive 
branch, whether on land or water or in 
the air, is liable to be shot to pieces by 
the target practice of nations profess¬ 
ing to hope that they shall not learn 
war any more. Even if she were a 
duck and could dive she would be run 
down or blown up by a submarine. 
Near Danzig the German war depart¬ 
ment will practice all kinds of shoot¬ 
ing at balloons, both free and captive, 
their size being 2,500 cu. ft., and the 
length of the holding cables being 
3,000 ft. They will also try to find out 
how much damage could be inflicted 
from a balloon or airship on an enemy 
beneath. 



THE BIGGEST LEATHER BELT 
IN THE WORLD 


It was made in Chicago and runs a 
saw mill at Tacoma, Wash. It is 114 
ft. long, 7 ft. wide, 3-ply thick, weighs 
2,300 lb., and 225 steers contributed 
the centers of their hides to make it. 
Notwithstanding its size and weight, 
and the tremendous strains to which it 
is subjected, not a peg, rivet or any 
metal fastening whatever holds it to¬ 
gether. It was simply stuck together 
with best quality of cement under 250 
tons pressure. 



War Balloon Bnilt on the Lines of a Fish 


















168 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


HOME-MADE TRUCK FOR GASO¬ 
LINE ENGINE 


By using the truck from an old steel 
binder and buying a small wagon wheel 
and a few extra bolts, a young farmer 
rigged up a good truck for mounting 



Home-Made Traction Engine 


his lj-hp. gasoline engine. He put a 
plank platform on the truck and used 
the same gearing that had been used to 
run the binder. A sprocket-chain belt 
was run from the engine through a 
hole in the platform down to the 
pulley, and the outfit moved itself along 
nicely. 

This portable engine is used on the 
farm for the following purposes: 
Pumps water for stock at a cost of 7 
cents a week; saws wood; cuts corn fod¬ 
der ; runs grindstone, fanning mill, and 
corn-sheller. 

--♦ ♦ ♦-- 

MELTING OLD TIN CANS 
PROFITABLE 


Old tin cans which are not left to 
kick about alleys and vacant lots are 
collected and turned to profitable use. 
When reduced they are worth $5 to 
$12 a ton. There are several methods. 
The simplest is to melt the whole mass 
of tin, solder and iron into rough in¬ 
gots, which may be used for sash 
weights, etc. To separate the tin com¬ 
pletely a chemical reaction is neces¬ 
sary. After melting out the solder the 
combined scrap iron and tin must be 
exposed to the combined action of some 
free alkali, preferably caustic soda, and 
electricity or air at 250°. One process 
is to dump the scrap on an endless 


moving frame which carries it alter¬ 
nately into and out of a vat of alkali 
in solution, caustic soda or potash. The 
frame is connected with the positive 
pole of a current of high amperage, 
and the tin is soon deposited in the so¬ 
lution as crystals, leaving the iron free. 
Afterward the crystals may be reduced 
easily to block tin and the solution 
used continuously, so that the expense 
of the whole is slight and the pure tin 
is valuable. 

-♦- 

PROPOSED TEST OF DEATH 


There are some unfortunates w T ho 
live in constant terror of being buried 
alive. Although there is no reliable 
evidence that the mistake occurs so 
often as these people imagine, the hor¬ 
ror of it is so great as to justify them 
in demanding that the chances should 
be reduced to a minimum. Many de¬ 
vices have been proposed and some 
adopted, but none is entirely reliable. 

The latest suggestion is a French 
invention which consists of a piece of 
paper, copper, brass or silver on which 
words are written with a solution of a 
neutral acetate. The piece is then 
fastened at the nostrils of the subject 
with the written side next the face. If 
decomposition occurs it will begin with¬ 
in the body, and the sulphurous gases 
will escape through the nostrils, in 



“The Piece Is Fastened at the Nostrils” 


which event the writing on the paper 
will be made visible by the chemical 








ENCYCLOPEDIA 


169 


action of the gas. In this way death 
would actually announce itself. While 
the test has the advantage of being one 
which need not require a physician, 
as it can easily be applied by anyone, 
the serious objection remains that 
sulphurous gases sufficient to bring out 
the writing frequently occur to the 
living in certain cases of stomach 
trouble. 

-»-♦ ♦- 

ARTESIAN WELL RUNS ELEC¬ 
TRIC LIGHT PLANT 


An enterprising South Dakota 
farmer makes his artesian well run an 
electric light plant, and so successful 
is his plan that other farmers are 
adopting it. 

A motor which had been in use on 
the well for some time is used to gen¬ 
erate the current. The well is a 2-in. 
one of good pressure, and the wheel, 
which is somewhat larger than other 
moter wheels, is driven at 450 r. p. m. 
The dynamo, of 600 watts capacity, 
supplies 12 incandescent lamps and an 
electric stove. Only two lights can be 
used while the stove is in use. 

-» - -»■ ♦- 


MOTOR HEARSE FOR BERLIN 


In one California city an auto¬ 
hearse has been in successful use for 



For “Rush” Funeral 


several months. So far as known the 
first vehicle of the kind in Europe has 
just been put in service in Berlin. 
The approval of the police department 
was necessary and this has been se¬ 
cured. With the motor hearse it is 
announced that funerals will take 

place in one-third the time. 

•-»♦ ♦- 

A GIANT SMELTER 


AUTO TIRE THAT CAN’T 
PUNCTURE 


Over 10,000 miles 
without a puncture 
or one cent of ex¬ 
pense for repairs 
is the record of the 
automobile tire 
shown in the accom¬ 
panying cut. This 
tire recommends 
itself for running 
over wire nails, glass, 
broken rocks, and 
any and all of the 
things which acci¬ 
dentally or intentionally are found 
wherever motor cars go. The outer 
tire is solid rubber 1 in. thick; other 
details will be readily understood from 
the illustration. 



In an age of electricity copper be¬ 
comes the “precious metal.” That 
means bigger and better smelters, and 
plenty of them. The biggest yet is 
now going up at San Bruno Point, 
8 miles south of San Francisco, and 
will cost $5,000,000 and two years of 
work. When finished, the plant will 
take copper ore only, expected to come 
from mines all along the Pacific coast, 
from Alaska to Valparaiso, but prin¬ 
cipally from Nevada, Arizona, Cali¬ 
fornia, and Mexico. Of course the 
distance will depend on the richness of 
the ore, but this smelter is expected to 
reduce even 2% ores profitably from 
short distances. At any rate, the Pa¬ 
cific has such a copper coast that the 

big smelter will be going full blast. 
-♦-+- 

“Gladiator” is the killing name of 
an English automobile. 






























170 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


HYDRATED LIME 


The first cost of quick lime is a little 
less, but it is likely to cost more in the 
end than the hydrated. A few reasons 
why the cost is greater are: the lump 



Hydrating Machine 


lime is perishable, requiring careful 
storage and always presents the clanger 
of spontaneous combustion. It is crude 
and unreliable, requires time and ap¬ 
paratus for slaking, and any excess used 
must be thrown away. Hydrated lime 
avoids all these objections and has 
many further merits. Passed through 
a machine, it comes out so finely di¬ 
vided as to produce the best quality 
of plaster, mortar, or cement as to 
strength, smoothness and density. As 
it shrinks less there is no cracking or 
blistering, and the older it is the better 
it gets. 

The hydrating of lime is nothing 
new, but it is done now with modern 
machinery. The ordinary lime enters 
the first cylinder through the hopper 
seen at the right of the cut, and as it 
is passed along bv the revolving mixers 
it is sprayed continually by water en¬ 
tering through the funnel. Having 
passed through, it drops into the sec¬ 
ond cylinder, and so on to the bottom, 
where it comes out as hydrated lime. 
Then it is passed through a very fine 
screen, which takes out all impurities 


and delivers it as a white, dry powder 
ready for packing and stable in any 
climate. 

-♦ ♦♦- 

FIVE CARS LIMIT OF FAST TRAINS 


Hereafter the 18-hour trains run¬ 
ning between Hew York and Chicago 
will consist of but five cars—a compart¬ 
ment observation car, two Pullman^, a 
diner and a combination buffet and 
baggage car. The Pennsylvania line 
started out with this limit and has 
adhered to it, despite the great demand 
for the fast service. The Hew York 
Central, however, has been handling 
six and even seven cars, and now the 
management declares it a physical im¬ 
possibility to maintain the schedule 
with such a heavy train and has re¬ 
stricted the number of cars to five. 
-» ♦ ♦-- 

NEW TELEPHONE SYSTEM FOR 
OFFICES 


The latest time-saving addition to 
business system is a little instrument 
which enables the head of a business 
or department to converse with one 
or all of his subordinate officers in an 

o rd inary 
tone of 
voice, i n 
any part of 
h i s office, 
a n d with- 
out hold¬ 
ing the ap¬ 
paratus to 
his ear or 
mouth. 
Their re¬ 
plies will come to him in like fashion, 
so that the whole conversation will be 
just the same as if all parties were 
talking together in one^room. If the 
manager wishes to communicate with 
one person only, he can easily make it 
impossible for anyone else to overhear, 
and if he wishes to keep the replies 
secret from someone in his own office, 
there is a receiver which he can use in 
the ordinary way. 



Telephoning at Ease 















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


171 


ROAD CUT THROUGH LAVA 


Roads over lava are common enough, 
but cutting one through 40 ft. of lava 
scarcely cooled, is a different propo¬ 
sition. This engineering novelty 
comes from our new Territory of 
Hawaii. It seems that the old gov¬ 
ernment road in the Kan district has 
been covered by the outflow from 
Mauna Loa and the territorial legisla¬ 
ture has made a beginning of reopen¬ 
ing the road by appropriating $15,000. 
It bids fair to be a hot job as well as a 
hard one, for the cooled surface is as 
hard and brittle as glass, while the 
lower strata are still molten. But the 
engineers insist that it is perfectly 
feasible. At any rate, hot-foot will 
keep them stepping. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

SLAG DUMPING CARS 


“Cinder pot” or slag 
“ladle” is the name 
given to a metal recep¬ 
tacle, mounted on a car, 
in which the slag from a 
smelter is removed to 
the dump. They are of 
all sizes, shapes, and de¬ 
signs, each claiming spe¬ 
cial merits. One pattern, 
as seen in cut, consists 
of a round pot, swung 
between two trucks, and 
tilted sideways by means of steam or 
compressed air in the cylinder which 
is mounted on the forward truck. The 
special merit claimed for this style is 
a false bottom which can be pushed up 



by means of the lever and piston un¬ 
derneath the pot, and so dislodge any 
crust which has formed on the bottom. 

The other kind shown in cut is tipped 
by a draw-chain, pulled by the engine 
as it leaves the car. The “ladle” has 
a capacity of from 70 to 280 cu. ft., 
210 cu. ft. being standard; it is 
mounted on a car body of cast steel. It 
may be arranged to dump either side 
or at the end. Simplicity, strength, 
and certainty of action are claimed for 
this style, and no linings which will 
need renewal. 

Either of the above patterns may be 
connected in series, so that the whole 
trainload can be dumped at once, 
either by steam or draw-chain, from 
the engine. 

-» ♦ ♦-- 

SELF=LIFTING AIRSHIP 


The “helicopter” is the high sound¬ 
ing name of the machine which is to 


Side View of the Cinder Pot 

outsail the aeroplane, and solve the 
problem of aerial flight. Two profes¬ 
sors of Johns Hopkins are working 
along new lines, and the usual fine 
prospects of success are published. 
Discarding all balloon and aeroplane 
levitation, they propose to ascertain by 
experiment the utmost possibilities of 
“direct thrust” for lifting purposes. 
This direct thrust is to be furnished by 
propellers 40 ft. in diameter, driven 
by a steam engine of 100 hp. Engine, 
boiler, furnace and water are to weigh 
1,000 lb., the rest of the apparatus 
700 lb., and the inventors believe that 
they can generate power enough to raise 
this weight plus the operators. Their 
prime object is to get the thing to go 



Side Dump C«r 






















172 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


straight up; after they get up they 
will try going sideways. 

The idea of such large lifting pro¬ 
pellers is not new, but heretofore they 
have been worked by man power, which 
proved inadequate. After they get up 
the professors figure that half the 
horsepower will be sufficient to keep 
them up. Here’s hoping that they may 
get up, stay up, and when they get 
ready come down without any dull 
thud. 

-» - ♦- ♦- 

FORTY=FIVB MILES AN HOUR 
THROUGH CLOUDS 


That was the experience of Alfred 
Leblanc, a young Parisian, who went 
up with a spherical balloon. A strong 
wind drove him and a companion 
through the night across France and 
Mecklenburg. In the morning they 
saw the Baltic Sea getting uncomfort¬ 
ably near, decided they had had enough 
and came down safely on the island of 
Kugen. They found" that in 14 hours 
the balloon had sailed 630 miles. 

-»■ ♦- ♦- 

ELECTRIC FAN IN HOUSE 
FURNACE 


The new system of forcing air 
through a house furnace by means of 
an electric fan was recently described 
in this magazine. The illustration 
shows where to place the fan which is 
to be used only when required. The 



Showing Location of Fan 


switch for turning on the current can 
be piaced in the room above. 


REVERSED CLOCK FOR BARBER 

SHOPS 


Every barber shop has a clock which 
is invariably placed on the wall oppo- 



Hold Before a Mirror 


site the big mirror which faces the cus¬ 
tomer in the chair. The clock face is 
reversed as seen in the mirror and not 
one man in a thousand can read the 
time. A jeweler in Glendine, Mont., 
has now invented a sane clock for bar¬ 
ber shops. The Keystone says the fig¬ 
ures on the dial are reversed and the 
hands move just opposite to those of 
ordinary clocks. The result is the re¬ 
flection in the glass is so “you can un¬ 
derstand it.” To demonstrate, hold 
this page in front of a mirror and read 
the time of the clock in the illustra¬ 
tion. 

-- 

WIRELESS STATION ON AIRSHIP 


The possibilities and practical utility 
of wireless telegraphy in aerial navi¬ 
gation will be thoroughly investigated 
aboard Count Zeppelin’s airship this 
summer. A wireless station has been 
installed on the craft, in which, in¬ 
stead of extending upward as in other 
stations, the receiver extends down¬ 
ward, consisting of a bronze wire 300 
ft. long. Power from the airship’s two 
80-hp. motors works the transmitter, 
which is capable of sending messages 
150 miles. 







































BROAD GAUGE RAILROADS? NO! 



This remarkable pile of wornout car wheels and old trucks contains hundreds of wheels. 
They were taken out from under coal cars by an Ohio railroad and will be broken up and 
remelted. The wooden cars to which they belonged were also destroyed and will be re¬ 
placed with steel cars of much larger capacity. If all the railroads should change to 6-ft. 
gauge there would be hundreds of thousands of tons in similar scrap heaps from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific. 


The most astonishing statement 
made by Mr. Harriman in his exami¬ 
nation before the Interstate Commerce 
Commission was his remark about 
changing the standard gauge of our 
railroad tracks. He predicts the pres¬ 
ent gauge of 4 ft. 8^ in. will be in¬ 
creased to 6 ft. and cars made 2 ft. 
wider. 

Every practical railroad man in the 
country from section foreman up to 
general manager knows this' is a prac¬ 


tically impossible thing. For 50 years 
there was experimenting with the gauge 
and a 3-rail track to accommodate in 
one train the cars of narrow and stand¬ 
ard gauge lines was no uncommon sight 
as recently as 10 years ago. The nar¬ 
row gauges have disappeared and the 
few 5-ft. roads have narrowed to stand¬ 
ard. The best judgment of the rail¬ 
road profession has decided in favor of 
the 4 ft. 8J in. 

To change this standard would mean 


178 







174 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


the rebuilding of practically every mile 
of main line and sidings in the whole 
United States; roadbeds, bridges, tun¬ 
nels, trestles, embankments, all would 
have to be enlarged. Engines, cars, 
depots, round houses, turn tables, 
switches would all be changed. Mil¬ 
lions of dollars invested in repair and 
construction shop machinery would be¬ 
come useless. In fact, the revolution 
would so permeate the whole railroad 
fabric as to produce a physical and 
mental chaos. 

There was a 6-ft. gauge once in this 
country—the Erie railway from Jersey 
City to Dunkirk—but as soon as it be¬ 
came a connecting line the folly of its 
gauge was remedied. What is needed 
is not wider tracks but more miles of 
present tracks and greater care in . 
operating them. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

MAMMOTH DREDGE BUCKET 


The accompanying illustration is not 
a picture of a mammoth mortar for 
coast defense, but belongs to the peace¬ 
ful occupation of harbor dredging. It 
is one of the many buckets, or scoops, 
which connected one to another form 
an endless chain of excavators. The 
bucket is shown resting on the drum 
which is submerged to the bottom, and 



each bucket brings up 54 cu. ft. of bot¬ 
tom at each trip. The “David Dale/' 
a big dredger built for the North East¬ 
ern railway of England, specially to 
deepen the harbor at Hull, is equipped 
with these mammoth scoops. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

TELEPHONE NUMBER FOR TELE- 
GRAPH ADDRESS 


Telephone subscribers in Austria- 
Hungary have hit upon a bright idea 
for reducing telegraph charges. Over 
there each word in the address is 
charged for as part of the telegraph 
message. To reduce this expense 
people register their telephone number 
with the telegraph company and advise 
their correspondents to use it instead 
of the name. 


-» - 

PRISON-MADE SIGNBOARDS 


There is a poetic fitness in convicts 
furnishing the signboards which shall 
keep other people in the right road, 
but the superintendent of New York 
state prisons seems to be the first man 
to discover its economic fitness. He 
has promised to have them made in 
Clinton prison for use on all the state 
highways. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

GREAT STEEL CITY BEING BUILT 


An enormous steel plant producing 
annually nearly two and one-half mil¬ 
lion tons of steel is being constructed 
at Gary, Ind., and to accommodate the 
army of laborers that will be employed 
an entirely new city is being built. 
Parks, theaters, streets, water and 
sewerage systems, all will be in readi¬ 
ness for the people when they arrive. 

In the steel plant the machinery will 


Capacity 54 Cu. Ft. 












ENCYCLOPEDIA 


175 


be electrically driven, the gases from 
the blast furnaces being used as far as 
possible for generation of the necessary 
power. In the rail mill induction 
motors ranging in capacity from 2,000 
to 6,000 hp. will drive the main rolls 
and a. system of control which is said 
to be “fool-proof” will be employed. 
-» ♦ ♦- 

COAL REPLACES OIL FUEL IN 
NEW ORLEANS 


The prospect of a permanent substi¬ 
tution of petroleum for coal, with 
happy release from smoke and cinders, 
seems to be another iridescent dream. 
At least the big coal contract recently 
closed by the Southern Pacific B. R. 
and Steamship Co. is a big pointer in 
that direction. The contract calls for 
250,000 tons from Pittsburg, to be 
delivered on the wharves at New 
Orleans. 

This fact is the more significant 
because the Southern Pacific made a 
strong effort to substitute oil for coal, 
changing its locomotives and burning 
large quantities of the liquid fuel. But 
the increase of price, due to a growing 
scarcity of oil, seems to have forced 
the railroad to abandon the project, at 
least in New Orleans. 

-♦—•—♦- 

BUILDING 48 STORIES HIGH 


740 Feet from Base to Top 


Unless somebody starts a new and 
bigger one before we can get this arti¬ 
cle printed the highest building in the 
world may be declared to be in New 
York City, where a tower is being added 
to a building in Madison Square. From 
the top of the building proper a tower 
75 by 85 ft. will rise to a height of 
492 ft. above the street, from which 
point it will continue in pyramid form 
and be surmounted by a cupola 658 ft. 
above the ground. The tower will be 
used as offices. The illustration is 
photographed from a model of the 
structure. 

The tower will contain 8,500 tons 
of steel or 1,500 tons more than the 


Eiffel tower; the steel framework from 
the third sub-basement to the top be¬ 
ing 740 ft. of continuous perpendicular 
bridgework. The steel columns at the 
base are 30 ft. long and weigh 45 tons 
each—3,000 lb. to the foot—and will 
be the heaviest ever made. 



Steel Framework is 740 Ft. High 



























176 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


HOLDING POWER OF A GUY 
ANCHOR 


A guy anchor for telephone poles is 
really a post auger which is screwed 
into the ground and left there. The 
pole is guyed or held by a small steel 
rope, one end of which is fastened to 
the pole and the other to the anchor. 



The holding power is something sur¬ 
prising. 

Tests made by Prof. Carpenter, of 
Cornell University, show that a 5-in. 
anchor, when bored into the ground 5 
ft., will hold 12,000 lb.; a 6-in. anchor, 
15,000 lb.; 8-in., 20,000 lb.; 10-in., 
25,000 lb.; 12-in., 30,000 lb. 

The cut represents a cross section of 
clay through which the helix of the 
anchor has been bored. For the sake 


of clearness the spiral patli of the helix 
is left open, as if it had just passed 
through. The results of the tests show 
that the holding power of such an 
anchor is nearly proportional to its 
size. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

OPENS BANK SAFE WITH SMALL 
HAMMER 


The bank at Seward, Alaska, has a 
big safe with a time lock. Recently 
the clock stopped and all efforts to 
open the safe failed. Lock experts 
were brought from all parts of Alaska, 
but none were able to solve the trou¬ 
ble. Finalty after several weeks the 
bank officials, in desperation, loaded 
the big safe on a steamer and sent it to 
Seattle for treatment. All this time 
$50,000 in currency was locked up safe 
and tight. 

When the ship tied up at its dock 
a safe expert was waiting to go on 
board. He simply gave two or three 
light taps with a small hammer, the 
clock started and a few hours later the 

bolt flew back as usual. 

- » » ♦ -- 

PENCIL CEDAR GETTING SCARCE 


Where do all the lead-pencils come 
from—320,000,000 of them a year? 
Mostly from red cedar, which is almost 
indispensable for the purpose, since no 
substitute for it has yet been found 
possessing all the necessary qualities. 
Pencil cedar is the only wood which is 
always sold by the pound, and it is 
getting scarcer while the demand for 
pencils increases rapidly. Measures to 
increase its growth are being taken by 
the U. S. Forest Service, bub that wiil 
take time, and meanwhile the situation 
becomes more acute. A fortune awaits 
the man who shall hit upon a satisfac¬ 
tory substitute. Inventors, get busy ! 
-♦ ♦ ♦- 

All the pig iron furnaces in the 
United States produced $400,000,000 
worth in 1906, an increase of 50 per 
cent in four years. Of this total the 
Steel Corporation is to be credited with 
43 per cent, or 18.6 per cent of the 
total output of the world. 


















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


177 


FRENCH BATTLES HIP DES TROYED ON SHORE 

Flagship “Jena” Blown to Pieces in Dry Dock—A Remarkable Disaster 

— Other Notable Naval Dry Docks 



Battleship “Jena” Before the Explosion 


The French battleship “Jena,” flag¬ 
ship of the Mediterranean squadron, 
with a rear admiral, two captains and 
630 men on board, was blown to pieces 
in the naval dry dock at Toulon on 
March 12. It was not permitted this 
noble ship to sink in action, go down 
in a storm or even founder on a rock. 
Taken from her ocean home, propped 
up with great timbers in a dry dock, 
and without even a drop of water to 
wet her sides, she was torn asunder 
in an explosion which killed 100 and 
injured 300 men. 

For two w r eeks the work of overhaul¬ 
ing had continued; every inch of deck 
and hull had been examined; every 
piece of machinery in gun and engine 
rooms had been overhauled; tons of 
smokeless powder, shells, torpedoes and 
other ammunition had been safely 
taken on and stored away until the 
magazines would hold no more. The 
men had finished their noonday meal 
and in another hour the gates would 
have been opened and the ship floated 


out into the harbor and her voyage be¬ 
gun. Without warning one of the 
after magazines supplying the 12-in. 
guns exploded from some cause not 
yet known, or at least not made public. 
It has even been questioned whether 
a spark could have been caused in the 
magazine by some stray current from 
a wireless station. 

The men below were enveloped in 
fire and suffocated with deadly fumes, 
while those on deck in a wild panic 
jumped overboard only to meet death 
on the stones 60 ft. below. The other 
magazines could not be flooded because 
there was no water, and, unable to 
execute the orders which would have 
been the proper thing to do at sea, the 
bewildered sailors were in much the 
same position as a company of city 
firemen would be if brought aboard 
ship. 

Owing to the flying shells it was im¬ 
possible to open the gates. Those who 
attempted to do so were killed, and 
it was finally necessary to open fire 































178 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 





XXAw&& 


l/mij/, 


Modern Dry Dock—Water Pumped Out 


on the dry dock gates with heavy guns 
from another vessel outside. A few 
well directed shots tore the barriers to 
pieces and the welcome waters of the 
bay poured in and stopped the ex¬ 
plosions which threatened the entire 
city. Altogether the disaster was as 
unusual as it was terrible. The “Jena” 
was built in 1901; w T as a turret ship 
of 12,100 tons, with 16,500 hp., and a 
speed of 18 knots. 

Largest Dock at San Francisco 

The largest dry dock in the world 
will now be built at Hunter’s Point, 
San Francisco, and will exceed in ca¬ 
pacity the present docks there, one of 
which is 750 ft. long, with 32.5 ft. 
of water. The new dock will be 1,050 
ft. long, 175 ft, wide at the top and 
have 36.5 ft. of water over the sill. It 
will cost $1,250,000 and require two 
years to build. 

It will he hewn out of solid rock 
and the sides and bottom of natural 
rock will be covered with cement. 


This new dock will be able to ac¬ 
commodate two of the largest battle¬ 
ships in the American Navy at one 
time. The great liners like the “Da¬ 
kota,” “Minnesota,” “Korea,” “Man¬ 
churia” and “Siberia” can be docked 
in this gigantic basin and have over 
400 ft. to spare. When the nature and 
magnitude of the work are considered, 
the cost—$1,250,000—should be re¬ 
garded as a low figure. The Navy 
dock at New York cost the government 
over $1,800,000, and it is much smaller 
than the proposed dock. 

The land has already been surveyed 
at Hunter’s Point, and active work 
will be commenced and crowded for¬ 
ward as soon as the plans are com¬ 
pleted. 

The Secretary of the Navy recently 
requested the plans of the two dry 
docks now in use at Hunter’s Point, 
The drawings were made and have 
just been forwarded to Washington. 
Although the company which will 














encyclopedia 


179 



Copyright Waldon Fawcett 

Battleship “Massachusetts” in Dry Dock—The “Jena” Was in the Same Position 

at the Time of the Disaster 


construct, own and maintain the new 
dock is a private corporation, yet i'i is 
generally understood that the great work 
lias been undertaken with the direct 
and active encouragement of the Navy 
Department; also that this department 
has expressed a wish to have the new 


dock completed at the earliest possible 
date. 

Strict secrecy has been maintained 
by both the company and government 
agents, but the whole matter has lately 
leaked out and ail the facts are now 
admitted. 
























180 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



Naval Dry Dock at League Island—Nearly Completed 


So great has been the increase of 
commerce of San Francisco that it 
often occurs that steamers must await 
their turn for their periodical clean¬ 
ing, painting and repairs. However, 
with the completion of the new gov¬ 
ernment dock at Mare Island Navy 
Yard, the big double floating dock to 
he built by the Union Iron Works, and 
the monster basin at Hunter’s Point, 
there will be ample facilities to accom¬ 
modate all the San Francisco shipping 
for years to come. 

League Island Dry Dock 

Naval engineers are preparing to 
rush to completion the new $1,800,000 
dry dock at League Island, N. Y. In 
no other naval station in the country 
will there be a dock that is superior to 
this. The biggest ships of the line, 
drawing more than 27 ft. of water and 


of more than 16,000 tons, can be easily 
accommodated within the great walls 
of masonry. At the entrance to the 
dock there has been erected a costly 
power house. Far down under the 
ground, something over 35 ft., are run 
the giant pipes through which the dock 
will be filled or emptied of water. 
Three great centrifugal pumps, each 
having a capacity of . 43,000 gal. of 
water a minute, will fill or empty the 
dry dock. A great fleet of warships, 
it is expected, will be sent to League 
Island for repairs when the dry dock 
is ready for use. 

-» - ♦ ♦- 

Two women made a two hours’ trip 
in a submarine boat, recently, as the 
guests of J. C. Lake, father of In¬ 
ventor Lake. The boat was maneu¬ 
vered on the bottom at various depths 
up to 27 ft. 



The latest of several gas motor passenger cars built by the Union Pacific at the Omaha 
shops. The chief change in this car is the side doors. 

















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


181 





£E .S-. i... 


SUBMARINE DIV ERS REC OVER TREASURE 

With Lives in Peril Every Moment They Explore Sunken Ships 


Lost treasure has always possessed a 
special fascination and has formed the 
basis of innumerable “thrilling” stories. 
But no fiction can surpass the sober 
facts of the history of wealth recov¬ 
ered from the ocean bottom, often at 
great depths and after long submerg¬ 
ence. In our April issue there was a 
description of the wonderful perfection 
to which the diving-bell has been 
brought; here are a few of the more 
striking instances of the recovery of 
sunken treasure by English divers in 
closed suits. 

From S. S. “Malabar” was recovered 
more than $1,250,000; from S. S. 
“Alphonso XII,” $450,000; from S. S. 
“Hamilla Mitchell,” $250,000, and 
from S. S. “Carnatic,” $200,000. The 
complete list is long, but these give an 
idea of the enormous value of the treas¬ 
ures which the greedy waves have swal¬ 
lowed, and the inducement to invest 


large capital, construct ingenious and 
expensive machinery, and run great 
risks in its recovery. 

The men who do this mining in deep 
waters, at the risk of sharks and 
asphyxiation, are even more heroic 
than the miners who face fire and 
“choke-damp” in the bowels of the 
earth. Think of working more than 
180 ft. below the surface, encumbered 
by suit, helmet and tubing, and under 
the water pressure at that depth ! That 
was done by the diver Angel Erostarbe, 
to secure bar silver worth $45,000 from 
the wreck of the steamer “Skvro” two 

«j 

miles off Cape Finisterre, Spain. The 
work was complicated by stormy 
weather, strong ocean currents, and the 
fact that the deck had collapsed with¬ 
in 1-| ft. of the floor of the cabin in 
which the silver had been stored. This 
made it necessary to blow away the 
collapsed deck with dynamite in order 


[For the facts and photographs used in the preparation of this article the editor is indebted 
to Messrs. Siebe , Gorman Co.,. Submarine Engineers to the British Admiralty and War 
Office .] 

















182 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



Ready to Descend 

to reach the treasure, and this feat the 
diver finally accomplished with great 
toil and risk, and under a water pres¬ 
sure exceeding 76 lb. to the .square 
inch. 

Then there was the ship “Hamilla 
Mitchell,” sunk near Shanghai, with 
specie to the value of $250,000 to 
tempt the adventurous. After long 
searching on the floor of the ocean, the 
wreck was located in 160 ft. of water. 
It had been “in soak” so long that 
worms had bored through some of the 
treasure-boxes, dollars were lying 
around in heaps, and Diver Ridyard 
worked four hours consecutively at that 
great depth, sending up 64 boxes of 
precious coin. 

This feat was complicated by pirates/ 
in true story-book style. The work was 
being done under the shelter of an 
island and the men supposed that they 
were safe; but just as the diver came 
up exhausted from an effort which was 
without parallel, it was discovered by 
the merest accident that a vast flock 
of white sails was sweeping toward 
them from the mainland. Chinese 
pirates! 

Instantly all was commocion. Ex¬ 
haustion was forgotten. The diver and 


all hands sprang to the work of slip¬ 
ping anchor and chains, setting sail, 
and then everybody to the oars, for the 
breeze was light. Now both loot and 
life were the prizes, for Chinese pirates 
believe that dead men tell no tales. It 
was a fearfully close call, but they 
made it. 

The recovery of boxes of gold coin 
worth $500,000 from the Spanish mail 
steamer “Alphonso XII,” off Point 
Gando, Grand Canary, was made dif¬ 
ficult beyond precedent by the fact that 
the treasure room was in the “run,” or 
after-part of the ship, and below three 
decks. It took six months of the hard¬ 
est kind of work to overcome all the 
difficulties of the situation. The depth 
was 160 ft., and the underwriters em¬ 
ployed three specially selected divers 
for the task of locating and getting up 
the mine chests, each containing over 
$50,000 worth of yellow gold. 

These tremendous depths have been 
exceeded, however, by Diver James 
Hooper, who descended to the wreck of 
the ship “Cape Horn,” off Pichidanque, 
South America. The depth was 34 
fathoms and every square inch of his 
diving suit must have been pressed 



Diver Angel Erostarbe 








ENCYCLOPEDIA 


183 


upon by 88^ lb. So far that is the 
limit. 

When it is considered that the great¬ 
est depth of the ocean is about 5 miles, 
a dive of 204 ft. seems pretty small, 
but it is really a great performance 
because of the crushing pressure of the 
water. The ordinary pressure of the 
air at sea level is 14.7 lb. on each 
square inch, or on the whole human 
body of 20,000 lb. Of course, if this 
pressure were not exerted equally in all 
directions, on the inside as well as the 
outside of the body, life would be im¬ 
possible. Now, when a man goes under 
water its pressure increases rapidly, 
until at 35 ft. depth it is just about 
equal to the air pressure. As he con¬ 
tinues to descend the pressure increases 
until at 100 ft. it is about 3 times the 
air pressure; at 140 ft., 4 times; at 170 
ft., 5 times, and at 204 ft., 6 times. 

To balance this tremendous pressure 
from without, a corresponding pressure 
of air within the diver’s body must be 
carefully maintained by the air-pump¬ 
ing machines with which his helmet is 
connected by tubing. From this it is 
evident that only strong and courag¬ 
eous men can stand the strain of the 
diver’s work, and that every precaution 
must be observed in both descending 
and ascending, especially the latter. 
The safe rate of ascent from depths 
less than 80 ft. is not more than 2 ft. 
in one second; for greater depths the 
rate must be still slower. There have 
been cases of divers who ascended rap¬ 
idly through fright or carelessness, and 
on reaching the surface they exploded, 
the blood pouring out from the open¬ 
ings of the body. 

These are but a few pages from the 
true story of these “toilers of the sea.” 
Here the prizes for toil and danger are 
scarcely to be exceeded anywhere. It 
would be another long story merely to 
recount the ingenuity and capital 
w T hich have been expended on the prob¬ 
lem of locating' and securing these 
prizes, or to name the treasures which 
the dark, unfathomed caves of ocean 
hold still out of reach of the searching 
hands of men. 



Telephoning to Diver 


GOVERNMENT WAR BALLOON 


Leo Stevens, the well-known aero¬ 
naut, has just signed a contract with 
the War Department to furnish a big 
balloon and to conduct experiments 
with it at Fort Omaha, Neb. It will 
cost in the neighborhood of $12,000, 
and it will be capable of lifting more 
than a ton of ammunition. 

This balloon makes the tenth which 
the War Department owns and which 
are ready to be used in case of neces¬ 
sity. This one, however, eclipses all 
the others in size and capacity. It will 
weigh 1,700 lb. and have a capacity of 
78,000 cu. ft. of gas; the netting over 
the bag will weigh close on to 290 lb. 
The bag will have a diameter of 56 ft. 
and the car is to be 6 ft. long, 5 ft. 
wide and 4-| ft. high. 

A big hydrogen supply tank has been 
erected at Fort Omaha. The experi¬ 
ments will be begun under the direc¬ 
tion of General James S. Allen, com- 
mander-in-chief of the signal corps of 
the army. 

Although the balloon is intended 
mostly for signal work, it will be large 
enough to carry bombs and ammuni¬ 
tion sufficient to play havoc with an 
enemy. 






184 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


WONDERFUL STRENGTH OF 
HUMAN JAW 


Experiments Show Surprising Force Used in 
Eating Ordinary Foods 


Its crushing 
power is surpris¬ 
ing, varying 
from 150 to 300 
lb. It is also 
surprising how 
much jaw 
strength is ex¬ 
erted unneces¬ 
sarily by many 
persons in eat¬ 
ing, often with 
the result of 
cracking or 
breaking the 
teeth. They 
crush their food 
with the ferocity 
of wild animals. 
But direct pres¬ 
sure is a poor 
way of breaking 
up most foods, a 
grinding move¬ 
ment gives bet¬ 
ter results with 
much less ex¬ 
penditure o f 
force. 

All this has 
been known for 
a long time by 
physiolo- 
gists, but some 
experiments re¬ 
cently made by 
Dr. Joseph Head, of Philadelphia, fur¬ 
nish exact figures on this subject which 
are as valuable as they are interesting. 
His method of conducting the experi¬ 
ments is made clear by the accompany¬ 
ing cut of a real skull. After the sub¬ 
stance to be crushed had been placed 
between the teeth, weights were placed 
in the suspended pail until the crush¬ 
ing weight was obtained. These 
weights are given for a large list of 
foods, and a comparison of the figures 
should be a valuable guide in selecting 


the diet of those who are weak for 
any reason and need to economize 
their strength, also of those who chew 
with “store teeth.” 

The first experiment was made with 
dry crusts, which broke under 15 lb. 
pressure. When, however, the com¬ 
bined crust and soft inside were tried, 
even 60 lb. pressure would not go 
through the dense mass. When a little 
saliva was added a pressure of 3 lb. 
was amply sufficient. The deductions 
with regard to fresh bread and thor¬ 
ough mastication are obvious. People 
are sometimes greatly surprised at hav¬ 
ing broken a tooth when they “only 
bit a soft crust.” 

Here are a few figures taken from 
Dr. Head’s tables. Of course, allow¬ 
ance is to be made for the fact that 
each food, and especially each kind of 
meat, will vary in reductibility accord¬ 
ing to quality and other conditions. 
Consequently these figures should be 
taken relatively, and not absolutely. 

The weight needed to reduce corned 
beef, with the help of a little grinding 
movement, was 20 lb.; for roast beef, 
20 to 35 lb. Tough “round” required 
38-42 lb.; sirloin, 10-43 lb.; pork chops, 
25-30 lb. The lowest on the list were 
boiled beef, 3 lb.; roast lamb, 4 lb.; 
tongue, 1-2 lb. Ho mention is made 
of hash, which would undoubtedly 
stand at the bottom of the list. 

Dr. Black states the human jaw will 
exert a pressure as high even as 300 lb. 
-♦ • ♦-- 

HOW TO MAKE CHEAP, PURE 
BAKING POWDER 


Go to any first-class wholesale drug 
house and buy 1 lb. cream tartar and 
1 lb. bicarbonate soda, the latter extra 
fine ground. Mix first with the second 
in proportion of 2 to 1 and run through 
ordinary flour sifter six times. Be- 
serving a little for immediate use, seal 
most of the powder in a glass jar or 
other air-tight receptacle. 

At present prices in Chicago this 
baking powder costs about 28 cents a 
pound, is absolutely pure, and conse¬ 
quently less is needed to do the work. 




















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


185 


MOTOR BAGGAGE TRUCK 



“What a shame to 
make that poor man 
work so hard; some¬ 
thing should be done to 
the railroads.” The 
speaker was a benevo¬ 
lent looking old lady 
who was seated in a car 
and watching a slim 
young man draw a big 
truck on which was 
loaded a dozen or more 
big trunks. The load 
was a good one for a 
team of horses, but the 
man had no assistant. 

The old lady’s sym¬ 
pathy, however, was not 
needed, for a closer in¬ 
spection showed the 
man was really doing 
nothing more than 
walking along the plat¬ 
form and holding the 
truck handle. The big 
load followed him like 
a faithful dog, and 
when he turned to one side the truck 
did the same. In fact, he was not pull¬ 
ing at all, but only guiding the load 
and keeping out of its way. 

The secret of this demonstration is 
that the baggage truck is equipped with 
storage batteries and an electric motor 
which propels it. In the leading 
handle is a small switch by means of 
which the operator can start, stop, or 
reverse the truck by a mere turn of 
the hand. 

The hardest work about a passenger 
depot now promises to become the easi¬ 
est, and bears out the prediction of an 
English scientist who says the human 
race will eventually become physically 
weak, by reason of having no hard mus¬ 
cular work to perform, as it will all be 
done by machinery. 


U. S. BALLOON PRACTICE 


About May 1st, weather permitting, 
four officers of the United States Sig¬ 
nal Corps purpose to'cut loose from 
Washington, D. C., in a free balloon. 
By the same permission they will sail 
across the country to the Mississippi 
valley, carrying provisions for three or 
four days. The main object is to give 
the officers practice in aerial naviga¬ 
tion, their experience thus far having 
been almost confined to captive bal¬ 
loons. 

The new one will be larger than the 
balloons used heretofore by the Signal 
Corps, and also different. It is being 
built in New York city, of varnished 
silk, and will be inflated with coal gas 
instead of the usual hydrogen. 


COTTON THE PEACEMAKER.—The looms of the world, with millions of invested dol¬ 
lars and millions of men, women and children, would be idle without our cotton. Five- 
sixths of all the fiber produced in the world are raised in our Southern States. Cotton is the 
great Peace King, for so dependent are foreign nations on the cotton industry they will go 
far to avoid conditions which would deprive them of this great necessity. 












186 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



REMARKABLE RAILROAD WRECK 


In the gray dawn, while running at 
60 miles an hour, the Chicago-New 
York flyer on the Grand Trunk rail¬ 
way went through an open switch and 
plunged into a freight train. The 
crash awakened the entire town of 
Bancroft. When the engine left the 
rails it tipped over and the two mail 
cars went on over and landed on the 
main line. The locomotive plowed 


through the dirt and came to a stop 30 
ft. to the right of the track. The bag¬ 
gage and express cars and day coaches 
were mixed up as shown in the pic¬ 
ture; the four sleepers remained on the 
track. 

The engine crew were scalded and 
suffered fractured limbs, and the fifty 
passengers were more or less bruised, 
but no one was killed. 


-» ♦-- 

HOME-MADE TRACTION ENGINE WITH MANY USES 


A self-propelled buzz saw, power 
plant and fire engine is what a Ne¬ 
braskan experimenter produced with 
little else than a few harvester parts 
and a gas engine. The engine used 
was a 4-hp. stationary 4-cycle engine, 
which was placed on two 14-ft. tim¬ 
bers. The traction part was arranged 
by gears and a belt on the side of the 
machine opposite to that shown in the 
illustration. The traction gears are 
operated by a tightener on the belt 
which takes the place of a friction 
clutch. For reversing the motion the 
belt is removed and replaced in a 
crossed position. This can be done 


quickly and does not require an extra 
belt as the idler takes up the slack. 

The two driving wheels are the 
master wheels of grain harvesters and 
the gearing and chain drive are from 
the same machines. The front axle is 
provided with two sulky plow wheels 
and the steering gear, consisting of the 
chains, worm gear and hand wheel, 
were found on the harvester. On the 
fore end is rigged a saw shaft and 
circular saw, capable of sawing a cord 
of wood in 30 minutes. 

On the rear is a barrel containing 
water, which is circulated by means of 
a rotary pump, run by the short crossed 
















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


187 





belt shown in the illus¬ 
tration. The pulley on 
the shaft is arranged to 
slide on the shaft, thus 
allowing it to be driven 
from the large pulley, if 
desired. When this is 
done the increased speed 
of the pump produces 
sufficient pressure to 
throw a good stream 
from a nozzle and is very 

useful for washing bug- Combination Traction Engine, Fire Engine and Portable Power Saw 

gies, etc. As the altera¬ 
tions for running the pump can be 
quickly arranged, the machine would 
doubtless prove an excellent fire extin¬ 
guisher, where plenty of supply water 
is available. 


FISHING BY WIRELESS 


WALL=PAPER COST MILLIONS 


A new design in fancy wall-paper 
patterns conies from Kansas City; also 
a way to utilize canceled checks. A firm 
has had all its offices papered with old 
checks, placed neatly edge to edge; all 
of the same size of paper, but not of 
original face value by any means. The 
face figures of the checks vary from 
$30,000 to $1,000, and the total for 
one room is $8,000,000. As a gilt 
molding runs around the edges of each 
check-panel, the general effect is rather 
pleasing. 


A large fisheries company operating 
along the Atlantic coast keeps track of 
the shoals of fish by means of wireless 
telegraphy. The fleet comprises 40 
vessels; when the coastwise steamships 
sight the fish they can communicate 
their movements to the other vessels 
immediately. Likewise, a part of the 
fleet finding fish at one point may no¬ 
tify the rest of the fleet and assemble 
the ships from remote points without 
delay. 

-♦-- 

Hoops on water tanks are usually 
too thin and unpainted, hence they 
often give way. They should be of 
wrought iron, without welds, at least 
j-in. thick, and painted inside and out. 
Also, keep them painted, and so avoid 
rusting and disaster. 



THE DERELICT—The United States wrecking steamer is now in commission picking up floating wrecks 
which are a menace to navigation on the coast waters. These nearly submerged hulls are either blown to 
fragments with dynamite, or are towed ashore, where they are left securely on the rocks by the tide. The 
above illustration is from a photograph of one of these dangerous wrecks which has been brought ashore 
by the derelict hunters. 
























188 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


QUINTUPLE WOOD BLOCKS 


Four of them 
have been fin¬ 
ished lately for 
the Carnegie 
Steel Co., and 
the cut gives an 
idea what big 
fellows they are. 
The height over 
all of each block 
is 4 ft. 5 in., and 
the weight is 
640 lb. The 

Courtesy Engineering New* ^ jg qJ 

rolled steel, If in. Each sheave is 15x 
31 in., intended for a 2J-in. manila 
rope. 

-♦ — »- 4 - 

IS “DREADNAUGHT” THE LIMIT? 


Has the limit in big battleships 
really been reached? There are those 
in position to know who claim it has. 
Private letters from men on board the 
“Dreadnaught” during her recent trip 
to Trinidad declare the turbines worked 
well but that the heat in the engine 
room was something hitherto unknown 
on board any ship. The vessel also ma¬ 
neuvered badly at slow speed and was 
unable to keep its place with the other 

and smaller ships of the fleet. 

-♦- 

TEACH BATHING IN SCHOOLS 


From Boras, Sweden, 
comes a novel and prac¬ 
tical idea on the subject 
of giving large numbers 
of children separate 
baths at a minimum of 
expense and trouble. 
Briefly stated, a new 
school building in that 
town has been built with 
a bath-room containing 
round enameled tubs 
sunk in the concrete 
floor, each large enough 
for one child. A circular 
pipe surrounds each tub 
and is pierced with fre¬ 


quent small openings, and all these 
pipes are connected with both hot and 
cold water reservoirs. In the bottom 
of each tub is the outlet and stopper. 

With a child in each tub, the water 
is turned on by an attendant until all 
tubs are nearly full. Each tubber is 
furnished with soap and brush and 
allowed ten minutes for scrubbing. 
Then the stoppers are pulled out and 
each child is given a final shower, be¬ 
ginning at 95° temperature and grad¬ 
ually cooling to 60°. In this way 48 
children are run through in an hour. 
After each relay the tubs are washed 
out thoroughly by the jets of water 
from the circular rim pipes, reinforced 
wherever necessary by brushes in the 
hands of attendants, and ending with 
a scald of the hottest water. The tubs 
entirely remove the danger of drown¬ 
ing where large numbers use a 
swimming tank. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

ASHES FOR FUEL FURORE 


The daily papers have gone wild 
during a lull in the ordinary supply of 
news and are filling columns with the 
wonderful discovery (!) of a poor 
Pennsylvania shoemaker who “burns 
ashes.” One teaspoonful of his secret 
“dope” in two gallons of water, when 
poured on ordinary ashes and lighted, 
is declared to keep a stove red hot for 
an hour. We recall that the Keeley 
motor was raised in the same state. 




“Each Tubber is Allowed 10 Minutes for Scrubbing” 






























encyclopedia 


,l89 



Courtesy Loudon Sphere 


ENGLISH CHANNEL TUNNEL DEFEATED 


The construction of the submarine 
tunnel under the English Channel has 
been indefinitely postponed. Parlia¬ 
ment listened to the war office and 
voted against the undertaking. This 
seems strange when one considers the 
ease with which a tunnel can be closed 
to an invading army, and evidently the 
French have no fears of an English in¬ 
vasion through its medium. The tun¬ 
nel could be flooded in a few minutes; 
its entrance could be blocked by clos¬ 
ing iron gates, or shifting a few blocks 
of stone into place; a few rapid-fire 
guns would hold back thousands; a 
single 1-in. pipe would carry deadly 
fumes sufficient to asphyxiate a regi¬ 
ment before it could march 100 ft. In 
short, no harder military accomplish¬ 
ment can be conceived than an in¬ 
vasion in these days through a tunnel 
from which escape is impossible and 
the chances of success not one in ten 
thousand. 

The illustration is reproduced from 
a French print more than a century 
old, and shows an invasion of armed 
forces by means of a tunnel. It is 
also interesting to note to what an 


extent the artist of that day recog¬ 
nized the future possibilities of aerial 
warfare. His dream of 100 years ago 
is just coming true in respect to air 
craft. Will it be another hundred be¬ 
fore the tunnel feature also material¬ 
izes? 

-— 

AERIAL TORPEDO BOAT 


The Peace Congress will have to 
hurry up and 6 et its proposed ban on 
airship torpedo craft accepted by the 
big powers or the first conflict will wit¬ 
ness a more deadly and dangerous 
fighting-machine in mid-air than the 
submarine has proved in naval work. 
The French army is already equipping 
with aerial torpedo boats which re¬ 
quire only one operator and can go 
into action in a few hours. Each snip 
will carry several shells, which require 
no delicate machinery as the submarine 
torpedo, and in which practically the 
entire weight of the shell can be util¬ 
ized for the explosive. With a few of 
these volcanoes on board the aeronaut 
has only to ascend, bring his craft 
overhead the enemy and let go. Gravity 


















190 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


and the contents of the cartridge 
can be depended on to make a hit 
every time. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

BELL DOOR KNOB 


The most 
unique door bell 
yet thought out 
is the one with 
a push button in 
the door knob. 
Even in the 
darkest night a 
caller can read¬ 
ily locate the 
door knob, and, 
having done so, 
to push the but¬ 
ton and ring the 
bell .is an easy 
matter. The 
bell is placed in 
the inside knob, 
which is made hollow for the purpose. 
The device can be used on any door by 
removing the old knobs and substitut¬ 
ing the new ones, which any one can 
do with a small screwdriver. 

--♦ ♦- 

AUTOMOBILES IN PITTSBURG 
FLOOD 


The recent Pittsburg flood in which 
twenty lives and millions of dollars’ 
worth of property were lost afforded 
a new record for automobiles in emer¬ 


gencies. Makers and owners of motor 
cars rendered valuable service in the 
free transportation of people in the 
flooded district while stony-hearted 
boatmen were demanding $5 per trip. 
The sight of automobiles plowing 
through water up to the hubs was an 
unusual one to most of the spectators. 

--» ♦ ♦ - 

NEW FORM OF GUTTER 


The usual street gutter is merely the 
angle between the curb and the slope 
of the pavement. Of course its capac¬ 
ity is very slight and any unusual rain¬ 



fall floods both it and the street. To 
obviate this, the design illustrated has 
been adopted at the Jamestown expo¬ 
sition. The gutter segment has a 12- 
in. chord and a 3-in. rise, or an area 
of 25.2 sq. in., about equal to a 6-in. 
pipe. 




















































































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


191 



HANGING CONCRETE STAIRWAY 


One of the most novel, useful and 
pleasing uses to which cement has been 
put in interior construction is the 
hanging concrete stairway. In the cut 
is shown a section of cement stairway 
which runs from the first to the third 
floor in a Pittsburg white marble 
apartment building. In its construc¬ 
tion no structural iron whatever was 
used; only small channel bars *4 hi. 
by 24 in- spaced about 4 in. and cov¬ 
ered with expanded metal lathing. The 
false work was removed in two weeks. 

The stairway supports not only its 
own weight, but in addition 7,500 lb. 
of marble; and a load of 2,000 lb. has 
been carried up the stairs without in¬ 
jury or deflection. Only the best qual¬ 
ity cement should be used in interior 
work. 



Showing Construction 


WIRE STORM FRONT FOR AUTO 

A novel storm front has been in¬ 
vented by Dr. Whiting, and is de¬ 
scribed as having several advantages 
over the glass or mica front. The 
front consists of zinc mesh wire gauze 
attached to a wooden frame which 
folds up when not in use. It can be 
removed or put on in five minutes, and 
when not in use is stowed away taking 
up little room. The front can be set 
at an angle and very greatly reduces 
the wind resistance caused by the solid 
front. It has been estimated this re¬ 
sistance is not less than 20 lb. per sq. 
ft. when running against a hard wind. 
The gauze does not obstruct the vision 
and allows an agreeable amount of 



Patent Applied Tor 

Wire Gauze Protector 

fresh air to pass through. In fact, 
under some conditions it is said the 
vision is more accurate than through 
glass. 

-♦ • ♦ - ■ 

CEMENT CISTERN FLOATS AWAY 

A man in Terre Haute, Ind., has lost 
his cistern: It floated away in a flood. 
The cistern, which was built of cement, 
jug-shaped, had been finished but no 
water had been let in. A levee which 
kept out the Wabash river broke; the 
flood poured through and washed the 
cistern from its place. 

It is now up to some notoriety seek¬ 
ing freak to attempt the trip through 
the Niagara whirlpool in a big cement 

jug- 

- »._♦ ♦ - 

A 5-ft. vein of anthracite coal just 
opened near Marion, Ind., is said to be 
equal to the finest Pennsylvania an¬ 
thracite. 


















































192 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


INTERESTING WORK OF TRACTION ENGINES 



The scope of the traction engine is 
steadily enlarging: Its operations are 
no longer confined to running thresh¬ 
ing machines. The illustrations sug¬ 
gest a few of the many utilities of 
which it is capable. The upper pic¬ 


ture shows a situation which caused 
the engineer some anxiety for a time. 
The traction engine is hauling a nar- 
row gauge logging locomotive across a 
river where the water was nearly 4 ft, 
deep. The locomotive was kept from 






























ENCYCLOPEDIA 


193 


falling over by strong goy ropes ex¬ 
tending to each bank. The voyage was 
made successfullv. 

In the middle picture an idea is 
given of what a traction engine can 
do as an improvised crane. The big 
boiler was not only raised, by means of 
a winding-drum attached to the trac¬ 
tion engine, but was then carried a 
considerable distance. 

The lower picture shows a traction 
engine harnessed to 10 plows and turn¬ 
ing 10 furrows nearly as fast as a 
team of horses draw a single share 
plow. 

-♦ ♦♦ — 

ALCOHOL FROM POTATOES 


In Germany potatoes have long been 
cultivated with a view to producing 
varieties which give the largest yield of 
starch for alcohol manufacture, without 
any regard to their edibility. The re¬ 
sults, according to a report by Consul- 
General Thackara, of Berlin, are re¬ 
markable. The appended table shows 
the yield of these varieties as compared 
with ordinary yields in this country. 
Largest yield recorded in the United 
States in 1905 was 175 bu. per acre 


and the average was 87 bu. per acre, 
the average starch content being 20 


per cent. 

Varieties— 
Professor Woliltman 

Iduna . 

Topaz . 

Sas . 

Leo . 

Richter’s Imperator. 

Silesia . 

Professor Marker. .. 


Bushels 
per acre. 
342 
2841/2 
326 
399 
412 
476 
3671/ 2 
428 


Per cent 
of starch. 

16.3 

16.4 

17.3 

18.3 
17.0 

15.4 
16.3 

14.5 


In this report the consul says: 
"Messrs. Metz & Co., of Steglitz bei 
Berlin, a reputable seed house, inform 
me that they could furnish the Silesia, 
Professor Wohltman, Leo, and Richter’s 
Imperator varieties, which they recom¬ 
mend for distillation purposes, for 
about 3 marks (71.4 cents) per 110 lb., 
delivered at Hamburg. Professor von 
Eckenbrecker says that the potatoes 
could be shipped in late October, but 
he would advise that they should be 
left here all winter and forwarded in 
March, as there would be le c s loss and 
a much greater chance of the potatoes 


arriving in the U. S. in good condition 
for seed purposes/’ 

It is evident from the above that 
prospective manufacturers of alcohol 
would do well to investigate some of 
these German varieties with a view to 
obtaining larger yields of potatoes than 
are possible from the varieties now in 
use in this country. 

-♦ -♦ ♦- 

SHIP’S BIG SMOKESTACK 


The smokestack or funnel of an 
ocean liner does not impress the ob¬ 
server as being so very large, either 



Big as a Railroad Tunnel 


when seen at a short distance or in a 
picture. The only way to comprehend 
what a really enormous affair it is, is 
to see a section of a funnel by itself. 
There is room for the largest locomo¬ 
tive ever built to pass through with 
lots of room to spare. The section of 
funnel illustrated is 15 ft. in diameter 
one way by 30 ft. the other. 

- » ♦ ♦- 

To deodorize bottles pour a little 
powdered black mustard seed and some 
lukewarm water into them, and then 
rinse with water. 

-- 

By burning oil in its locomotives the 
Southern Pacific saved $950,000 in 
190(5. 

























104 


ENCYCLOPEDTA 


wheel, the 24 spokes of which are fast¬ 
ened to two hubs. Spokes and hubs 



Motor Scooter Swifter Than an Ice Yacht 


ICE MOTOR SCOOTER, NEW SPORT 


Winter sportsmen are 
already getting ready 
for next year, and are 
impatiently waiting to 
engage in the new and 
furiously fast sport of 
racing their motor 
scooters on ice. The 
motor scooter is a new 
kind of craft and only 
one has been built, but 
its performance the past 
winter has set a lot of 
people crazy to possess 
them, for 100 miles an 
hour is declared easy, 
and nobody knows yet 
what the limit will be. The sailing 
iceboat, generally considered pretty 
swift on the wing, must now go out of 
business and join the canal boat class. 

The motor scooter is the invention 
of Nathaniel Poe, “who took an or¬ 
dinary 14-ft. scooter with sharp prow 
and rounded stern,” says the Automo¬ 
bile, and fitted it with a 20-hp. gaso¬ 
line engine. The driving wheel has 
sharp steel spikes and reaches the ice 
through a casing like a centerboard. 
Hence if the boat runs into open water 
or breaks through the ice, no water can 
enter. Two sharp steel blades at the 
stern serve as rudders, worked by an 
automobile steering wheel. The craft 
also makes excellent time over hard 
snow and by putting a pair of wheels 
under it forward and aft, can be towed 
by a horse or motor car, about the 
country. 

--- 

BIG WOODEN FLYWHEEL 


After an accident to a flywheel in a 
large European electric station the 
superintendent designed and had con¬ 
structed a flywheel of wood which has 
a diameter of over 35 ft., and a rim 
width of 10 ft. The thickness of the 
rim is about 12 in., and it is made up 
of 44 thicknesses of beech planks, says 
Power, with staggered joints. The 
hoards were glued together and then 
bolted. The inside consists of a double 


are of cast iron. The wheel is oper¬ 
ated at 76 revolutions per minute, 
which corresponds to a peripheral 
speed at the rim of 130 ft. per second 
(94 miles per hour). This is said to 
constitute a record for wooden fly¬ 
wheels. 

-»-«■ ♦-- 

NO AMERICAN MERCHANTMEN 
IN THE ORIENT 


American vessels are never seen in 
Indian and other Eastern ports. Other 
nations, even small ones like Belgium, 
send their own ships to these countries 
and consequently reap the abundant 
commercial profits, while United 
States manufacturers are not able to 
compete with them. 

A commercial agent representing 
American firms and who has had years 
of experience in the Orient, declares 
that he has not known of an American 
vessel being in any Indian port for 
years. American products are shipped 
to England and from there reshipped 
aboard British merchantmen to India. 
Consequently Great Britain does 90% 
of the foreign business with India. 
-♦ ♦ ♦- 

Post cards to be admissible to the 
mails must conform in weight and size 
to those printed by the government, 
may not be folded, and the use of glass 
tinsel, mica, or metal is forbidden un¬ 
less the card be enclosed in an envelope. 














ENCYCLOPEDIA 


195 


LARGE CHURCH BUILT FROM ONE TREE 



Built From One Tree, the Age of Which Was Estimated to 
Have Been Nearly 2,000 Years 


All the lumber, even 
to the shingle roof, used 
in the construction of a 
large church at Santa 
Rosa, Cal., was furnished 
by a single redwood tree. 
The main building of 
the church is 40 ft. by 
80 ft., with ceiling 22 ft. 
in the clear; spire, 90 ft. 
high. There is an audi¬ 
ence room large enough 
to seat 400 persons; par¬ 
lor, seating 90; pastor’s 
study, vestibule and 
toilet, and yet when the 
edifice was completed not 
all the material from the 
ancient redwood had been 
used. The tree was grown 
in Mendocino county, 
California, and when 
felled its age was esti¬ 
mated by scientists to be 
nearly 2,000 years. 


METALS HAVE ODORS 


A German scientist declares that 
every metal has its characteristic odor. 
Not everv one can detect the odor of 
cold tin, copper or aluminum, but 
when pieces of such metals are heated 
to a moderate degree, they give off 
strong smells, distinguishable by any¬ 
body. At higher temperatures metals 
lose all trace of smell, but again give 
off an odor on being heated after a 
lapse of several hours in a cold state. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

PECULIAR AIRSHIP ACCIDENT 


An American inventor living in the 
City of Mexico has amused himself 
and astonished the natives the past 
three months by sailing about the town 
in an airship. When making an ascen¬ 
sion recently he accidentally steered 
into a tall electric light pole, and there 
he stuck. As usual a great crowd con¬ 
gregated, blocking the streets. In try¬ 


ing to release the ship the gas bag was 
torn and the craft slowly settled to 
the street. A photograph was taken 
which shows the airship as it has 
begun to descend. 






















196 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


SELF-PROPELLED MOTOR ICE-CUTTER 



Steered Like a Lawn Mower 


The horse-drawn and 
hand-pushed ice plow 
which has been used for 
years in harvesting natu¬ 
ral ice has a new com¬ 
petitor now in a motor 
machine. 

The illustration makes 
its operation readily un¬ 
derstood. A gas engine 
is mounted on a skid, 
driving a circular saw on 
each side and cutting two 
strips of ice, each the 
width of a cake, at each 
trip. The machine is 
steered by a handle very 
much as a lawn mower 
is guided, only in this 
case the outfit is self- 
propelling. At the rear end, projecting 
from the frame, is a roller full of sharp 
steel spikes. The roller is turned by 
means of a sprocket chain driven by the 
engine, and is thrown in and out of ac¬ 
tion by the long lever in front of the 
handle. It is said that with this ma¬ 
chine more ice can be cut than in any 
other way, and that the cuts are 
smooth, enabling the packing of the ice 
in the house to better advantage. 

--♦ ♦♦- 

SCHOOL OF RAILROAD SHOP 
WORK 


The Missouri Pacific has followed 
the example of the Baldwin Locomo¬ 
tive Works and opened a school for 
its shop apprentices. The boys report 
in squads of five each for 30 minutes 
each day, the instruction includes me¬ 
chanical drawing and mathematics. 
Two instructors with university train¬ 
ing do the teaching, and the taking 
of correspondence school courses is 
encouraged. 

-» - «- ♦- 

The more volatile oils usually re¬ 
quire a higher ignition temperature 
than those which do not vaporize so 
easily. 


OXYGEN MADE AT HOME 


Will Keep Milk Fresh for Several Weeks 


An English firm has put on the mar¬ 
ket a chemical in cakes like soap, which 
when placed in a small steel tank 
generates pure oxygen in a few mo¬ 
ments by the simple addi¬ 
tion of water. One pound 
of the cakes will make 3 
cu. ft. of pure oxygen. The 
apparatus is 18 in. high, 5 
in. in diameter, weighs 6 lb. 
and can be carried in the 
hand. The gas is suitable 
for any of the numerous 
purposes for which oxygen 
is now used, such as disin¬ 
fecting, for divers, miners 
and aeronauts, and for the 
crew in submarines. Where 
large quantities are required 
larger generators are sup¬ 
plied. A small generator costs $6 and 
the cakes about 35 cents per pound. 
The process is without danger. 

Oxygen has been used with great 
success for preserving and sterilizing 
milk which is bottled immediately 















































I 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


197 


after milking, under a pressure of oxy¬ 
gen. A light heat is applied for a few 
seconds in the presence of the oxygen 
under pressure, and suffices to destroy 

the microbes and anv harmful ferment- 

«/ 

ing matter, without boiling the milk, 
which will remain fresh for several 
weeks and preserve its good taste as 
well as all the other nutritive qualities 
of fresh milk. 

A life-saving box for resuscitating 
the apparently drowned and asphyxi¬ 
ated is also available, costing, complete, 
about $6. It is in use at many mines 
and blast furnaces and can be put in 


TRACKLESS TRAINS FOR RURAL 
DISTRICTS 


The next 10 years will witness as 
great a revolution in rural transporta¬ 
tion of farm produce, as the rural free 
delivery and rural telephone have made 
in the domestic comfort of the 
farmer’s home. Every fairly prosper¬ 
ous farmer will be president of his own 
line, while serving as conductor, engi¬ 
neer and general manager, and can is¬ 
sue annual passes to his neighbors—if 
the state legislature does not forbid. 
Incidentally the farm 10 miles from a 



Any Farmer Can Couple on His “Car” or Wagon 


operation in two or three minutes. The 
gas is conducted through a “wash bot¬ 
tle” or purifier and thence into a rub¬ 
ber bag shown folded in the lid of the 
box. One charge will produce a cubic 
foot of pure oxygen in 10 minutes; 
the normal dose is one-ninth of a cubic 
foot in all cases of asphyxia. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

The long-distance overland record 
for wireless was made March 10 when 
the Government station at Point Loma, 
Cal., caught a wireless passing between 
Washington and Pensacola, Fla. The 
same station also caught a message 
from the battleship “Connecticut/’ 
which was communicating from New 
York Harbor with Washington. 


railroad station will be worth as much 
as the ones nearer town. When the 
farmer once comes to realize his pos¬ 
sibilities the good roads business will 
take care of itself. 

Our illustration shows a wagon 
train, the invention of one Eenard, a 
Frenchman. The cars and wagons 
have each six wheels, the front and 
rear pair of each vehicle arranged to 
turn like the front pair on a buggy. 
The vehicles are not only coupled to¬ 
gether but sections of shafting extend 
through each connecting to the motor 
car, and by gearing to the wheels of all 
the others. By this arrangement each 
car supplies its own necessary tractive 
weight and the “locomotive” need not 
be heavy. 











198 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


MACHINE THAT READS CHARACTER 


This machine scientifically measures, delineates, 
prints and delivers on a sheet of paper, the approxi¬ 
mate degree of development of every faculty of the 
brain. Its operation may well be compared to the 
working system of a large newspaper. The many 
radiating pins or rods which come in contact with the 
subject’s head are like so many distant reporters, who 
telegraph the exact dimensions of the faculties, or 
“bumps,” to the editor’s office in the cabinet, the 
messages being carried by 140 wires contained in 
the metal tube supporting the head piece. 

The editorial department, consisting of an electro¬ 
magnet, controls the movements of a typed wheel, 
similar to the typed wheels in automatic weighing 
machines, thus causing it to perform the function of 
a compositor. The printing department then comes 
along with a piece of blank paper, takes an impression 
from the typed wheels, and passes the copy to a 
newsboy lever, which seizes the impression and delivers 
it to the reader. A printed list of vocations, which 
accompanies each impression, enables only push the contact out one or two 
the subject to determine to a certain points, thus registering that number of 
extent the trade or profession to which points on the record, 
he is best adapted. -» ♦ »-- 





Measuring the Mind 


Of course this machine is not infal¬ 
lible as the interpretations depend on 
phrenology, which in itself is not infal¬ 
lible; but it will produce in a few 
seconds as intelligent and complete a 
record as could be produced by an 
expert phrenologer in half an hour and 
if phrenology were reduced to an exact 
science the machine would probably do 
the rest. 

Although the construction of this 
machine appears somewhat compli¬ 
cated, owing to the great number of 
parts, the working principle is very 
simple. All the little rods or reporters 
are provided with contacts, which slide 
on rows of insulated metal points. 
There are five points in each row and 
each point has electrical connection 
with the magnet in the cabinet. A 
fully developed faculty or “bump” will 
thus push the contact on the rod all 
the way out to the fifth point, thereby 
making contact with that point anil 
causing the typed wheel to register five 
points for the corresponding faculty, 
while an underdeveloped faculty will 


SPECIAL DELIVERY WITH 
ROCKETS 


The most unique method of deliver¬ 
ing mail doubtless is that employed by 
steamers passing the islands of the 
Tonga group in the Pacific. On ac¬ 
count of many reefs, landing is ex¬ 
tremely dangerous, and the few letters 
to be delivered are attached to large sky¬ 
rockets which are fired and reach the 
shore in safety. 

-♦♦♦- 

GLASS PARLOR UNDER SEA 


A tower resting on the bottom of the 
ocean 30 ft. below the surface and ex¬ 
tending up into the open air will be 
built at Long Beach, Cal. The shaft 
will be constructed almost entirely of 
heavy plate glass with a glass room 12 
ft. square at the bottom reached by an 
elevator. This will give visitors an op¬ 
portunity to observe the wonderful sea 
gardens for which these waters are cele¬ 
brated. 











ENCYCLOPEDIA 


199 



LONDON’S SUBTERRANEAN THOROUGHFARE 


Subway Under.Subway—Over 258,000,000 Persons Carried Annually— 

Safer Than Streets 


Most of the large cities of the world 
have turned to underground transit as 
the solution of congested street and 
transportation difficulties, elevated 
structures having been found unsatis¬ 
factory. London, with nearly seven 
millions of inhabitants, long ago 
availed herself of this recourse, but the 
old two-penny tubes, operated by steam 
power and so poorly ventilated that 
they were a menace to health, are 
scarcely to be compared to the model, 
electrically-operated and carefully safe¬ 
guarded lines that now underlie her 
streets, sometimes more than a hundred 
feet below and again following so near 
the surface that a persevering child 
might dig through the three feet of soil 
and touch the top of one of the big steel 
tubes. 

In all, London has six underground 
electric railways completed and five 
more are under construction and pro¬ 
jected ; and of the 600,000,000 persons 
carried annually on all her railways, 
258,000,000 are accommodated by 
these tunnel lines. The main system 
was planned by the late C. T. Yerkes 
and included electrically equipping the 
old Metropolitan District Railways and 
the construction of four other great 
intersecting lines, covering a total route 
length of 74-J miles. The greater part 


of this enormous undertaking has 
already been accomplished. The old 
District lines have been transformed 
and two of the new lines are in 
operation. 

The Baker Street a-nd Waterloo Bail¬ 
way, 5J miles in length, is a fair type 
of all the others. The route was for¬ 
merly covered by omnibuses, about 
158,000 passengers being carried daily. 
The underground line accommodates 
35,000,000 passengers annually, and at 
a rate of 14 miles per hour trains cover 
the entire route in 22 minutes. 

Approaching the Baker street sta¬ 
tion we are pleased with the handsome 
effect produced by the dark but brilliant 



Signals and Automatic Stop in Tunnel 



























200 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



The Qreathead Shield Making the Bore 


red terra cotta glazed blocks built up 
over the strong steel framework. The 
roof has been left flat. Possibly these 
Londoners expect to build upward 
some time as well as downward. The 
entrance is wide and roomy, and the 
people are moving leisurely. Having 
passed through the spacious booking 
halls and bought our tickets at 2d. 
(5 cents) apiece, we come upon the 
elevators or lifts. There are two shafts 
with two lifts each, of the winding- 
drum type. Did you notice as we came 
through that the station buildings are 
fireproof? Even the joinery of the 
windows and doors! The only wood 
used is of teak, which is almost fire¬ 
proof. And look at this lift! All of 
steel, with a non-inflammable wood 
floor. Holds as many as 60 people. 
The passengers leave at the opposite 
side from that at which they enter. 
Saves time, and the attendant does not 
have to push through the crowd to get 


to the exit gate, as it is operated auto¬ 
matically by compressed air. The 
operator can instantly stop this car at 
any point, or should it attain undue 
speed it will be stopped automatically 
by apparatus in the winding room. If 
necessary the lift can also be worked 
by an attendant in the winding cham¬ 
ber through the control apparatus 
there. Makes one feel pretty secure, 
doesn’t it? 

Whew! Feel that draught? Would 
not expect it down here, would you ? 
It’s from the ventilating fans. There’s 
a staircase for emergencies, you know. 
It’s in a shaft 18 ft. in diameter and 
winds around an iron tube 4 ft. 6 in. 
wide. A fan 5 ft. 6 in. in diameter is 
placed in the upper part of the station 
near the top of the air shaft and is 
driven by a 10-hp. motor. The air 
shaft passes under the station platform 
and terminates in a large cowl erected 
at one end of the platform, where the 








ENCYCLOPEDIA 


201 




air is sucked in through open wirework. 
The fan extracts from 18,000 to 20,000 
cu. ft. of air per minute, while fresh 
air enters by the staircase and lift 
shafts. They say the whole air in the 
tunnels can be changed once in an 
hour. Bather an improvement over the 
first two-penny tube! 

Light as day down 
here, isn't it ? This con¬ 
crete platform is 400 
ft. long. Nice effect, 
those cream - colored 
enameled tile walls and 
that white painted arch. 

The tunnels at all the 
12 stations on this line 
are over 21 ft. in diam¬ 
eter. There comes a 
train; they run three 
minutes apart. Six all- 
steel cars—a motor at 
each end and four trail¬ 
er cars between—all 50 
ft. long, 8 ft. 8 in. wide 
and 9 ft. 5| in. high 
from rail level. The 
trailers each seat 52 
passengers and the mo¬ 
tors only 46 each, the 
remaining space being 
taken up by the driv¬ 
er’s cab, built of steel 
and containing all the 
control apparatus, as 
well as the air com¬ 
pressors. 

Here we go into the 
bowels of the earth. It 
is much like all the rest 
in construction. Each 
track in a separate cir¬ 
cular tunnel lined 
throughout with cast- 
iron segments bolted to¬ 
gether. The steepest 
incline on this line is 1 in 60, and the 
radius of the sharpest curve is 330 ft. 
Three diameters of running tunnels are 
used, .11 ft. 8J in., 12 ft. and 12 ft. 
6 in., the largest for the sharpest 
curves. Never guess we were down so 
deep; averages between 60 and 70 ft., 
though. Over in the new Great North¬ 
ern, Picadilly and Brompton Under¬ 


ground at one point the level is 123 
ft., while at another not far distant it 
is but 20 ft. Much quieter here than 
one might expect. That’s due to the 
quarter-inch felt pads used on the 
tracks between the chairs and the sleep¬ 
ers, and the fiber insulators put round 


the necks of the bolts that hold the 
chairs down. These pads, together 
with the elastic roadbed, have also elim¬ 
inated the vibration trouble that has 
sometimes annoyed residents near un¬ 
derground railways. 

Twenty electric glow lamps in this 
car. They are arranged on four cir¬ 
cuits. When the train crosses a gap 


“Here We Go Into the Bowels of the Earth” 


“These Concrete Station Platforms Are 400 Ft. Long” 














202 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



Signal Box at Kennington Road 


Signal Board, Illuminated 


in the conductor rails wider than the 
span of the front or rear shoes of the 
car only half the lights in the car will 
go out. The headlights are entirely in¬ 
dependent of these. Those 16-cp. 
lights placed in the tunnel at distances 
of about 40 ft. give a good light and 
being so high up, there are no disagree¬ 
able flashes. There’s a splendid signal¬ 
ing system on this line; block sections, 
automatic train stops and all that sort 
of thing; the driver can establish tele¬ 
phonic communication at any point, 
also. 

The big Chelsea power station, the 
largest in the country, is the heart of. 
it all, however, pumping its power like 
life-blood along a network of great 
arteries and small arteries and tiny 
capillaries. Never visited it? There 
are 64 boilers, each evaporating 18,000 
lb. of water per hour. Chain grate 
mechanical stokers, superheaters, econ¬ 
omizers, all the modern apparatus are 
installed. In the engine room are 
eight turbo-generators of 7,500 hp. 
each, a total of 60,000 hp. The steam 
turbines run at 1,000 r. p. m. and each 
is coupled to a 5,500 k. w., three phase, 
alternating current generator. The 
pressure generated is 11,000 volts and 
the frequency 33J cycles per second. 
This line alone requires considerable 
energy to keep it going. There are the 
high tension feeder cables running 
along the tunnels to the sub-stations, 
the conductor rails, two to each track, 


which supply the current for working 
the trains; the 220-volt three-phase 
circuits supplying the incandescent 
lamps in the tunnels; the 550-volt cir¬ 
cuits for the lifts and the arc lights 
in the stations; the entire system of 
telephone circuits, the electrically con¬ 
tinuous track rail in each tunnel for 
the signaling system, the negative 
main for the same purpose, and be¬ 
sides a compressed air pipe running 
from end to end of the railway and 
supplying air to the pneumatic motors, 
for the signals and switches. 

That new tramway-subway built by 
the London County Council is quite 
an experiment. Runs close to the sur¬ 
face, you know. The top is only 3 ft. 
down at one point, and at another point 
crosses another subway running far be¬ 
low. They expect to build more of 
them. Wonderful, isn’t it! 

Let’s get off here at the Embank¬ 
ment station and transfer to the Char 
ing Cross station of the District Rail¬ 
way. Oh, no, it is not necessary to 
ascend to the surface—this is an un¬ 
derground transfer. 

--♦- 

The gunboat “Wasp” cruised up the 
Mississippi river lately, stopping at all 
important ports to secure recruits for 
the Navy. 

-»♦ ♦- 

It would have cost $700,000,000 to 
pay hand labor for the work done last 
year by farm machinery. 












ELECTRIC LIGHTED BREECHES BUOY 


First Improvement in 100 Years 


Few people are aware that the 
breeches buoy employed by all life-sav¬ 
ing stations the world over has been in 
use for 100 years; and no less surpris¬ 
ing is the fact that until now no im¬ 
provement in its construction has been 
made in all that time. When the life¬ 
boat cannot go out, a light line is shot 
from a cannon on shore over the wreck, 
where it is seized by the sailors who 
use it to draw out a heavier line which 
is made fast to the ship. On this line 
the breeches buoy is drawn back and 
forth with a light line, the outfit be¬ 
ing suspended from a trolley which 
travels on the big rope. The buoy con¬ 
sists of a cork round life preserver to 
which is attached short breeches of 
stout canvas—hence the name. One 
passenger can be taken at each trip. 
Inasmuch as rescues with this appara¬ 
tus arc most often made at night, great 
difficulty is experienced by the crew 
on shore in knowing when the buoy 
has reached the ship, or is loaded ready 
to return; and frequently passengers 
are nearly drowned in the waves by 
being stopped after getting a few yards 
from the ship. Even when the men 
on shore keep pulling, the occupant is 
tossed up, his head striking against 
the heavy iron trolley. 

The new device has an air cushion to 
protect the head, and a box containing 
an electric battery which will burn for 
24 hours. Water or wind has no effect 
whatever upon the lights, which are the 
important improvement making sig¬ 
nals possible for the first time. There 


are three bulhs-eye lights; a white one 
shining down on the breeches buoy; a 
green light burns on the sea side, and 
a white light shows on the shore side 
so long as the buoy is empty. The 



moment a person gets into the breeches 
the light automatically changes to red, 
which is the signal to “haul away.” 

The apparatus which has been tested 
with great success, is the invention of 
a Captain Dalton, of Cape Cod, an ex¬ 
pert in life-saving work, and is the re¬ 
sult of a wreck two years ago in which 
every person on board the ship was 
lost. It has been adopted by the U. S. 
Life-Saving Service. 


203 





204 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


STRENGTH OF TELEPHONE 
WIRES 


In switching some freight cars on 
to a siding at North Haven, Conn., 
the brakes failed to work and a car 

ran off the end 
of the track and 
crashed through 
a big 50-ft. tele¬ 
phone pole, 
breaking it at 
the ground and 
at a point 25 ft. 
high. For a few 
moments that 
part of the pole 
left swinging in 
the air danced 
up and down 
like the bobber 
on a fish line, 
and threatened 
to bring down 
the line. The 
wires however 
proved equal to 
the strain and 
for several days 
the unusual 
sight was a curi- 
o s i t y to hun¬ 
dreds of people. After breaking the 
pole the car went on and stopped 
right in front of a house, which 
would surely have been wrecked but 
for the fortunate location of the pole. 
The owner now thinks telephone poles 
good things to have around a man’s 
house. The picture is reproduced by 
courtesy of the American Telephone 
Journal, from a photograph made by 
John Putnam. 

-♦- 

ATLANTIC OCEAN TRAFFIC 


During 1906, there were 1,097 land¬ 
ings of trans-Atlantic liners at New 
York, bringing to this side a total of 
1,159,551 passengers, and for the first 
time exceeding the million mark. Of 
these passengers 218,720 were cabin 
and 940,831 steerage. The latter 


figures are especially noteworthy in 
view of the now stringent immigration 
laws, and absence of rate cutting on 
the Atlantic. 

There were 15 steamship lines whose 
vessels averaged over 1,000 passengers 
per trip west during the entire year, 
while certain favorite lines averaged 
over 2,000 passengers per boat per trip. 
- ♦ ♦ ♦- 

LIPTON’S NEW 50=HP. MOTOR 
BOAT 


Sir Thomas Lipton has just received 
from the builders, White Bros, of 
Southampton, England, a new motor 
boat, which he has named “Britannia 
1.” She is 50 hp. and has a speed of 
14 knots which can be maintained in 
the roughest weather or any kind of a 
heavy sea. She is 55 ft. long and has 
two 6-cylinder 50 hp. motors, turning 
twin screws. The motors are built by 
the Britannia Engineering Company, 
of Colchester, who designed the above 
arrangement to eliminate all vibration. 
Sir Thomas’ new boat is probably the 
smoothest running motor boat yet built 
for one not equipped with electric 
power. 

The saloon is a handsomely fur¬ 
nished apartment, with ceiling high 
enough for the tall owner to move 
about without stooping. Pantry, 



“Britannia No. 1”—50 Hp. 























ENCYCLOPEDIA 


205 


kitchen and lavatory are located near 
the saloon. Under the forward deck, 
in the engine room are two folding 
beds for the engineer and assistant. 

. -♦ • ♦- 

PUSH BUTTON OPERATES 
MORRIS CHAIR 


The latest ease producer is a Morris 
chair which tilts backward or forward 



as much or little as desired without 
getting up to set the rod. In fact 
there is no rod, but instead a series of 
stops controlled by a push button. You 
simply touch the button and the weight 
of the body carries the back to any 
angle wanted; sit up straight and 
touch the button again and the chair 
straightens up at the same instant. 
-♦ « ♦- 

LEARN SPANISH; NOT GREEK 


Spanish is the language of com¬ 
merce in the Western Hemisphere, 
hence a young man had far better learn 
Spanish than Greek, unless he intends 
to devote his life to study, in which 
event he would master both. 

The commercial possibilities of the 
immediate future with the Latin speak¬ 
ing countries which are just coming 
as purchasers into the markets .of the 
world, are beyond compute. Spanish 
is the most useful foreign language a 
young American can learn. Not only 
is it essential to a traveling represen¬ 


tative or resident agent in the Latin- 
American countries, but there is a 
great demand at home for stenog¬ 
raphers, correspondents, and export de¬ 
partment clerks and managers, each of 
whom are able to command very much 
larger salaries by reason of their 
knowledge of Spanish, than is paid to 
corresponding positions in the same 
establishments to their English speak¬ 
ing and writing employes. 

The Latin countries will be slow to 
change either their custom or lan¬ 
guage, and il we are to do business 
with them we must learn their lan¬ 
guage ; not wait for them to learn ours. 


SPORTSMAN’S PORTABLE BED 


A bed G ft. long and 28 in. wide, 
made of canvas and collapsible metal 
frames, and weighing only 6 lb. is now 
available for campers. The entire out¬ 
fit folds into a package only 14 in. 
long, which can be packed in a trunk 



Shuts out Insects and Rain 


or slung over the shoulder. The bed 
proper does not touch the ground, and 
a light wire frame supports mosquito 
netting, which shuts out all insects, or 
in event of cold or rain a blanket or 
canvas may be used as a roof. The 
bed can be set up or taken down in a 

few minutes. 

-» - ♦- ♦- 

A clearing house to look after the 
2,000,000 freight cars of leading roads 
will be established at Chicago. 














206 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


RAILROAD HAS 72 PER CENT GRADE 



Incline Plane Railway—Capacity 25 Tons 


At Weehawken, New Jersey, there 
is one of the queerest railways ever 
built. It is a 300-ft. incline with a 
grade of 72 per cent. Cars 20 ft. wide 
and 40 ft, long capable of carrying a 


load of 50,000 lb. are used on the line. 
These cars are operated by 300-lip. 
electric motors and make the ascent in 
one minute. Both passengers and 
vehicles are carried. 














ENCYCLOPEDIA 


207 


MODERN DIVING BELLS 


A Submerged Workshop—Contains Several Men—Built of Strongest 

Steel 


[For the facts and photographs used in the 
preparation of this article the editor is in¬ 
debted to Messrs. Siebe, Gorman & Co., Sub¬ 
marine Engineers to the British Admiralty and 
War Office.] 

In this country we are accustomed 
to think of the diving bell as a relic of 
antiquity dating back, as it does, sev¬ 
eral hundred years from our first book 
in physics. Our submarine work is 
done by divers clad in armor and hel¬ 
met, but in other countries the modern 
diving bell finds frequent use, and has 
been brought to a remarkable state of 
efficiency. 

The early diving bells were formed 
of wood bound with iron hoops like a 
barrel. They coula go down only to 
moderate depths and remain but a 
short time, “as the air contained was 
about 60 gal.” When tins was ex¬ 
hausted the diver became insensible 
and, if not drawn up and released, soon 
died. At 33 ft. the pressure half filled 
the bell with water. About 1720 the 
first improvement in air supply was 



Single Diving Bell 

made by Dr. Halley, sec¬ 
retary of the Eoyal So¬ 
ciety, who with four oth¬ 
ers descended to a depth 
of 60 ft. and remained 
down one hour and forty- 
five minutes without dis¬ 
comfort. He arranged a 
number of casks, coated 
with lead to sink them, 
“each containing 36 gal. 
of air.” These casks one 
at a time were drawn 
down by a rope, and the 
air they contained trans¬ 
ferred to the diving bell 
by means of a leathern 
hose. The hot air in the 
bell was released through 
a small valve at the top. 
In 1778 the first use of an 



Double Bell for Japan 









208 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



Interior of Air-Lock Diving Bell—For 
Gibraltar 


air compressor on the surface to pump 
air down to the bell was successfully 
employed at Hexam Bridge, England, 
where two men remained under water 
for hours at a time. The diver’s dress 
and helmet was invented in 1829. 

The modern bell is of two types— 
the “diving bell,” which can be let 
down from a dock or float, and the 
“air lock,” which is built into a vessel 
specially constructed for the purpose. 

The ordinary diving bell measures 8 
ft. long, 6 ft. wide and 5J ft. high in¬ 
side. It is a ,steel box open at the 
bottom, with heavy glass bull’s-eye 
windows to admit light through the 
top. To it are fastened four chain 
slings which terminate in a single 
chain with which the bell is lowered 
and raised. Every possible precaution 
and test is applied in the making of 
these chains. From the center at the 
top stretches the air hose and telephone 
and electric light wires extending to 
the air pumps above. Within the bell 
around the bottom are the blocks of 
cast-iron ballast, seats and footrails for 
the divers, and shelves and hooks for 
tools. A chain hoist hangs from the 
center of the ceiling, while the electric 



Exterior of Air-Lock Diving Bell—Illustration 
Greatly Reduced 


lights are attached in several conven¬ 
ient places. This outfit permits two 
or more men to work together, assisting 
each other, and with a freedom of 
motion which is impossible to the diver 
clad in armor, weighted down with 
diving weights, and with the resistance 
of water, and often tide, to contend 
with. The men in the bell need give 
no thought to their safety, nor con¬ 
stantly guard against the fouling or 
kinking of the air hose, as the diver in 
the helmet suit must constantly do. 
Even if the air pump should fail there 
is always sufficient air to sustain life 
until the bell can be raised and in 
extreme emergency the occupants could 
take chances on diving into the water 
through the open bottom and possibly 
reach the surface alive. 

The largest diving bell ever con¬ 
structed is pictured in the illustration, 
the interior measurements being: 
Length, 17 ft.; width, 10 ft. 6 in., and 
height, 6 ft. 6 in. It has straight 
sides permitting close approach to the 
work on which it is employed. It has 
a large complement of tools of all 
kinds, chain hoists, hooks, etc., and 
its telephone has an extra loud trans- 














ENCYCLOPEDIA 


209 


mitter by which the conversation of 
the crew can be heard at all times, and 
to call above does not compel stopping 
work. The air supply required is 
large and air compressors worked by 
steam engines are necessary. As an 
additional precaution the pumps de¬ 
liver their air into a large steel tank 
which contains a reserve supply lasting 
30 minutes. The hoisting of the bell 
is done with a steam engine. 

The air lock diving bell is a large 
affair and is used for heavy and ex¬ 
tended work on the bottom, such as 
rock drilling, building masonry piers, 
and undertakings requiring consider¬ 
able time. It is really a steel caisson 
with one or more air locks opening 
through a large steel tube, which rises 
to the open air through a well built in 
the middle of the boat. The apparatus 
is raised and lowered from a tall steel 
platform resting on four legs,. by 
means of steel cables on drums driven 
by powerful engines; counter-weights 
assist in the movement. 

The air lock diving bell plant illus¬ 
trated was built for use of the British 
admiralty at Gibraltar. The vessel is 
85 ft. long, 40 ft. beam; the diving 
bell weighing 50 tons, and in addition 
to all the usual equipment of the ordi¬ 
nary diving bells contains a rock drill 


operated by compressed air. There is 
a large opening in the lower chamber 
out of which the water is kept by main¬ 
taining the necessary air pressure. The 
workmen can ascend at any time by 
climbing the ladder. When a man 
has occasion to come up he enters the 
air lock chamber, locks the bottom 
door to maintain the pressure below, 
remains in the lock a few minutes 
during which time the air pressure is 
gradually reduced until there is none 
at all, then he passes through the 
upper door into the tube and so on up 
to the top and reaches the platform. 
To re-enter the diving bell this pro¬ 
cedure is reversed. 

For the most part, however, sub¬ 
marine work is done by helmet divers 
in closed suits, and some of their most 
important and exciting experiences 
in the recovery of .vast treasures. 

-♦-- 

The Pennsylvania railroad has 
planted 1,500,000 trees along its right 
of way during the past five years. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

Iron sheets coated with aluminum 
are very durable and likely to supplant 
galvanized iron for many purposes. 



Special Boat Built 
for Operating Hir-Lock 
Diving Bell 





















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


210 



Will the electric motor yet find a place in the 
propelling plant of big ocean steamers? There are 
those who say it will; one is a naval constructor 
writing in the Shipping World, London. He points 
Entering Banquet Hail out the difficulty of graduated speeds and reverses 


The bulk of the telegraphing in the world is in 
the Morse code, using the Morse key and sounder 
with few changes from the original. The relia¬ 
bility of the old system is what has maintained its 
supremacy, but there must soon come more rapid 
facilities, says W. J. White, in the London Elec¬ 
trical Review. The trouble with the typewriting 
systems is the difficulty of synchronizing. The 
machine telegraph of the future must remedy this; 
the ideal being one in which any typewriter oper¬ 
ator can send a message, and the instrument at the 
other end will print in Roman characters what is 
sent. 

The prediction is made that big business houses 
will have their private telegraph lines to the near¬ 
est office, a typewriter telegraph instrument being 
placed on the desk. An operator will write mes¬ 
sages previously dictated. These will be received 
on a printing machine at the main office. An in¬ 
dicator will warn the operator there that the mes¬ 
sage is waiting. It will be taken from the receiver 
and despatched to its destination without delay. In 
a fewginoments the merchant for whom it is in¬ 
tended will receive a signal on the instrument in 
his office and, going to it, will get the message. 

-» •» ♦- 

DRIVING SHIPS BY ELECTRIC MOTORS 


THE FUTURE TELEGRAPH SYSTEM 


BANQUET ON CHIMNEY TOP 


When the new brick chimney of a hotel at Atlantic 
City, N. J., was completed recently, the chief engineer 
of the hotel celebrated the event with a banquet in 
mid-air. A platform was built inside the 
chimney, at the top, and the dishes and 
other things were hauled up with ropes. 
The guests were required to “step in to 
dinner” by climbing the iron ladder on 
the outside of the stack a little matter of 
150 ft. The host, weighing 20G lb., led 
the way to the novel dining room. The 
Practical Engineer says there were eight 

in the party and all ate heartily. 

-♦ ♦ ♦-- 


































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


211 


with the present steam turbine, while 
recognizing their many advantages. 
His expectation is that the turbines 
will not be connected to the driving 
shafts, but be of the vertical type driv¬ 
ing generators. The current will be 
led through cables to motors direct 
connected to the propeller shafts. 
Steam would then be used economically 
—which it is not now—in driving the 
turbines, and the ease with which vari¬ 
ous speeds, or reverse for going astern 
could be accomplished is evident. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

THE N. Y. CENTRAL DISASTER 


One of the strangest accidents which 
ever befell a passenger train was the 
overturning of the suburban electric on 
the New Yo.^k Central on its run out 


accident was a mechanical erack-the- 
whip, and the electric locomotive was 
apparently responsible in that it was 
capable of enormous speed. 

One of the railroad employes testi¬ 
fied at the inquest he found the end 
of one rail sprung sideways 5 in. 
This, however, would seem to have 
been a result of the accident rather 
than its cause, for the rear car was the 
first to tip over. 

It is difficult to find any excuse for 
the disaster, which would seem to be 
the result of the motorman trying to 
see how fast he could go; and in the 
matter of speed an electric car is very 
obedient! 

There certainly was no pressing need 
for any such haste in a suburban train, 
and had the cars been of steel instead 



High=Speed Electric Locomotive 


of New York City on the evening of 
February 16. When rounding a cui^e 
while going at a speed estimated to be 
from 70 to 90 miles an hour, one coach 
after another, beginning with the rear 
car, toppled over and were wrecked. 
The dead numbered 23 and the injured 
100 or more. The heavy electric loco¬ 
motive did not leave the track when 
brought to a stop after scattering pas¬ 
sengers and pieces of cars along the 
track for several, hundred feet. The 


of light, flimsy wooden affairs, the 
dead and injured list would have been 
greatly reduced. Railroads resent state 
and national supervision, but the ter¬ 
rible and constantly recurring disasters 
of the past four months cannot be long 
continued without arousing public 
opinion to a point where very stringent 
legislation will not only be demanded, 
but enacted. 


I 









212 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Commerce Commission were published, 
showing that the percentage of pas¬ 
sengers killed last year is more than 
double that of 10 years ago, while the 
injured are fully three times more. In 
other words it was more than twice as 
safe to travel on steam roads 10 years 
ago than it is today. 

We repeat the question asked then: 

“Why is it?” 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

PICKING CORN BY MACHINERY 


tie-ally destroyed; while every econom¬ 
ical farmer nowadays secures his fod¬ 
der with as much care as he gives his 
hay, knowing that it is equally nu* 
tritious. 

-»-■» ♦- 

LEAD=GNAWING BUGS 


In many tropical countries the en¬ 
gineers have been obliged to use iron 
telegraph poles because ferocious ants 
speedily destroyed the wooden ones. 
But right here in Chicago has been 
found an innocent looking bug with an 
appetite for lead pipe, and it thinks 
nothing of eating through the lead 
covering of an underground telephone 




It is only within the last few years 
that anything practical in the way of 
machines for picking corn have been 
produced. Now there are several suc¬ 
cessful machines on the market, the 
one illustrated being a good type of 
all. 

This picker has the guide chains with 
the usual prongs for straightening up 
the stalks. The chains form a stalk 
passage extending rearward through 
the machine. A rapidly moving chain 
provided with fingers is located at one 
side and between the guide chains in 
such a position that as the machine 
passes over the row the fingers engage 
the ears on the stalks and snap them 
off. By means of a deflector the ears 
are directed to a receptacle from which 
thev are carried to the husking; rollers 
and thence to the wagon. The tops of 
the cornstalks are cut off, and by 
means of a conveyer this and other 
trash is carried to the rear and dropped 
on the ground. 

The great objection to all modern 
corn pickers is that the stalks arc as¬ 
sumed to be valueless, and are prac- 


Lead Pipe Showing Ravages of Bugs 

cable. It is believed it is the insulat¬ 
ing material within the lead pipe 
which the beetle really craves, but this 
would indicate a possession of an x-ray 
eyesight or a wonderfully keen sense 
of smell. In any event the bug gnaws 
through the lead pipe, whether it act¬ 
ually eats the lead or not. The insect 
was discovered by experts from the 
Underwriters Laboratories of Chicago, 
in an investigation of trouble on fire 
alarm wires at the stockyards. Wires 
in the “bone-house” seem to have fared 
the worst, and the discovery opens up 


✓ 




Modern Machine for Picking Corn 















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


213 



THE BATTLESHIP “NEW JERSEY” is remarkable for her double turrets fore and aft, 
in each of which are mounted two 8-in. and two 12-in. guns. She carries in all 64 guns; 
is 435 ft. long; 76 ft. 10 in. beam; has 19,000 h. p.; speed, 19 knots; displacement, 15,320 tons; 
requires 703 men. 


possibilities of clanger heretofore un¬ 
dreamed of, for the question instantly 
arises: Can any lead covering of elec¬ 
tric light wires be pronounced abso- 


Insects That Gnaw Lead 

lutely secure from leakage of current 
and consequent fires? 

A similar case is reported from 
Savannah, in this country; and from 
many parts of Australia where trouble 
of this kind has become common. 
The Australian bug is known to the 
general public as the Jesuit beetle. 
Another, the elephant beetle, is also 
addicted to lead gnawing. A covering 


of aluminum is now suggested as likely 
to resist the bug bites, but no one can 
tell how long this will answer, as Na¬ 
ture is a great provider for necessities, 
and the bugs may grow a new set of 
teeth specially adapted to an alumi¬ 
num diet. 

- 4 ♦ 4 - 

MEXICAN GOVERNMENT BUYS 
RAILROADS 


The Mexican government, by the 
purchase of a majority of the stock in 
the most important lines of railroad 
in that country, has secured complete 
control- of 7,190 miles out of a total 
of 10,900 miles now built. The un¬ 
purchased lines consist of numerous 
companies with widely separated prop¬ 
erties and will also doubtless be ab¬ 
sorbed some day. The government 
ownership consists in owning a ma¬ 
jority of stock in a holding company, 
which in turn owns a majority of 
stock in the several operating railroad 
companies. 




















214 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


THE COMING OF THE CHEAP MOTOR RUNABOUT 


The inexpensive, though practical, low-priced motor vehicle, not capable of 
dangerously high speeds nor embellished wdth all kinds of accoutrements, costing 
the buyer about $250, is bound to come. It will be so simple the owner will 
not need a professional motor engineer to run it, neither will he require a fat 
hank account to keep it in repair. It will correspond to the average one-horse 
buggy seating two passengers, and costing for horse, harness and vehicle $250. 
The popular two-passenger motor car will soon be available at this price—$250, 
and the builders will sell them by the hundreds of thousands just as the horse- 
drawn vehicles are now made and sold by the hundreds of thousands each year. 

In fact, the advance guards of the low-priced motor buggy are already here, 
arid several firms are making specially for rural letter carriers motor vehicles 
which sell from $225 up to $400. And the rural carriers with 25 to 30 miles 



Runabout Built for Rural Letter Carriers 


to travel over country roads each day are finding out how good they are, that 
the cost of repairs and supplies is about one-half the cost of horse-keep and 
that they can serve their routes in one-third the time, thus improving the service 
greatly. 

The demand for cars costing thousands of dollars and in each of which the 
manufacturers’ profit is as large as on 20 cheap vehicles, explains why the 
cheaper vehicle has been ignored. Their shops can contain only so many “jobs” 
at a time and for those manufacturers the smaller outfits would not pay. 

The time will soon come, however, when the cheap vehicles will be built in 
all parts of the country on a scale small compared to the factories of the big 
makers. It will he like the making of bicycles, which at its height was most 
successfully done, not by factories in which all the parts were made, but in shops 
where all the parts were bought in large quantifies from specialty makers, and, 
the manufacturing was really only the assembling of parts and painting. 







\ 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


215 


So it will be with the runabouts. Already any one clever with tools can 
purchase every part required to construct a very respectable and serviceable 
motor vehicle, which he can himself put together. Where the putting together 
is done in large quantities on a system of time-saving labor, a very fair vehicle 
can even now be sold for $250, with a good profit to the builder. 

Government statisticians state that last year there were built in this country 
horse-drawn vehicles of all kinds a total of 1,700,000; and that of this astounding 
number two-thirds, or over 1,000,000 were pleasure vehicles, and of these fully 
800,000 were two-passenger vehicles. Nor is the output mentioned anything 
phenomenal; it shows about the same gain over the previous year that has 
characterized the business for years past. 

Is it not evident that the great numerical field for motor vehicles is not in 
the cars costing thousands of dollars each, any more than the bulk of the carriage 
business is in outfits costing $2,000 apiece? The motor vehicle will not have its 
day like the bicycle, although our readers would hardly believe the figures of 
bicycles made and sold last year. They are now being used for purposes of 
utility, not pleasure, and with improved pavements in cities and better country 
highways the time is almost here when more bicycles will be in use than ever 
before. 

There has ceased to be the pleasure in riding a bicycle there once was, but 
the motor car, requiring no exertion, will always be desirable for both pleasure 
and utility. And when the $250 motor can be had in plenty then and not until 
then will the horse really begin to disappear. 

Five hundred thousand—half a million—motor runabouts at $250 could be 
sold this year of 1907 if they were ready for delivery. By another year they 
will be made by thousands, and no other manufacturing business today offers 
such opportunities for making big fortunes as this. 








PERILOUS WORK OF THE SPEED 
TESTER 


It is one thing to take the readings 
of a stationary engine in a nice warm 
power house, but quite another to make 
the record of a big freight locomotive. 
These readings are made to secure data 
from which are determined the con¬ 
ditions under which the locomotive 
does its best work. When a new en¬ 
gine comes out of the works its record 
of power produced with certain 
amounts of fuel is taken. At intervals 
thereafter other similar records are ob¬ 
tained, and to do so the operator must 
ride on the pilot, a perilous and un¬ 
comfortable position. 

Even in summer when exposure to 
the weather is much less, it requires a 
good deal of nerve and a cool head to 
do the work. The speed tester fre¬ 
quently is obliged to lie fiat, stretched 
at full length across the pilot, which 



























.216 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


does not ride with the gentle motion 
of a Pullman. In winter a man would 
freeze to death in this position and a 
small wooden coop is built with doors 
at each end through which he can 
watch and adjust the instruments with 
which the “card” or record is made. 

The danger of the work was brought 
to public attention last month in a col¬ 
lision on the Baltimore & Ohio rail¬ 
road, in which C. T. Runnels, a speed 
tester was instantly killed, his body 
being fearfully mangled. Although he 
could see the approaching smash he 
was caged in such a manner that it was 
impossible to escape. 

-♦ ♦- 

BATTLESHIP “VERMONT’S” 
HARD TEST 


In a 50-Mile, 12° Below Zero Gale, She Exceeds 
Requirements 

When the battleship “Vermont” 
steamed into Boston harbor last De¬ 
cember she looked more like a floating 
ice palace than a man-of-war, having 
endured a trial run probably the most 
severe ever given any 
fighting ship. 

The course was off 
the coast of Maine, and 
the first test, a 4-hour 
speed run, was made 
under 300 lb. steam 
pressure, with a record 
ranging from 18.25 
knots up to 18.58 knots, 
and averaging 18.33 
knots per hour. Fol¬ 
lowing this was the 24- 
hour endurance run 
with an average record 
of 17.50 knots, but dur¬ 
ing this test a 40 to 50- 
mile gale was blowing 
with the thermometer 
at 12 degrees below 
zero. The waves that dashed over her 
quickly froze, until tons upon tons of 
ice covered the decks and turrets. Not 
an inch of deck or superstructure but 
was encased in ice. 

The keel of the “Vermont” was laid 
on May 17, 1904, says the American 


Marine Engineer; her dimensions are: 
Length, 450 ft.; breadth, 76 ft. 10 in.; 
displacement, 16,000 tons; draft, 26 
ft. 9 in.; horsepower, 16,500. She was 
launched September 1, 1905, and tested 
December 2, 1906. The vessel is de¬ 
signed as a flagship, with ample quar¬ 
ters for fleet officers, ship officers, and 
761 men. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

STEEL TIES FEARED 


The steel tie has received a set-back 
as the result of the accident to the 
Pennsylvania flyer which went into 
the river near Johnstown; At the 
point where the disaster occurred the 
track was laid on steel ties, and while 
at first, officials of the company denied 
the ties could have caused the wreck, 
it is significant that a week later orders 
were issued for the immediate remova 1 
of every steel tie in the company’s 
tracks. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

Pig iron and diamonds are true 
barometers of trade. When iron is 


Photo by Boston Herald 

The Ice=King’s Leviathan 

high, so are diamonds; although one is 

a necessity and the other a luxury. 

-»- ♦ ♦- 

A Corliss engine can be made to do 
more work by raising the boiler pres¬ 
sure, increasing the speed, or giving 
less lap to the steam valves. 




















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


217 



ELECTRIC MINE LOCOMOTIVES 

Strenuous Work of Smokeless Engines Thousands of Feet Underground 


Hundreds and even thousands of 
feet underground, in the coal, iron and 
copper mines of the country, electric 
trolley cars are running night and day, 
of which the public never hears. On 
these subterranean railroads the cars 
move on as exact time schedules as the 
surface cars, but the motorman is 
never laid off for failing to shine his 
brass buttons, and there is no sign for¬ 
bidding him to talk to passengers. 
Through avenues of darkness the trol¬ 
ley of the mines finds its way, the pass¬ 
ing of the electric headlight leaving 
the caverns blacker than before. In 
the most remote room of the farthest 
drift the lonely miner anxiously looks 
forward to the hour and minute when 
the electric locomotive is due, for it 
means release from work, and swift 
conveyance to the living world again. 
The motor is as surely driving the 
mule from his underground prison, as 
it has from the street car. The first 
electric mine locomotive in this coun¬ 
try went into service in the Lykens 
Valley Colliery of the Pennsylvania 
railroad in 1887, and while many im¬ 
provements have come since then, the 
original "Pioneer” is today still mak¬ 
ing its regular trips. 

The introduction of hundreds of 
mine trolley cars was not founded on 
any sympathy for the unhappy mule, 
but strictly as a business proposition. 
The trolley is cheaper. Unless mine 
cars of unusual size are desired, the 
same light rail can be used for a trol¬ 
ley system, and the track and overhead 
wiring installed at a cost of only $200 
per 1,000 ft. To this add cost of a 
generator of suitable size and about 
$2,500 for each locomotive. 


As an illustration the following 
figures taken from a small mine using 
only one locomotive will show the sav¬ 
ing. The entire cost of locomotive and 
all other machinery and wiring was 
$7,625; and the cost of hauling 288 
tons of coal per day, is $7.96 or 2.76 
cents per ton, for the following: 

Station engineer.$1.75 


Motorman . . . .•. 1.75 

Helper . 1.60 

Repairs.76 

Depreciation . 1.90 

Oil and waste.20 


Total .$7.96 


To haul this coal by mules would re¬ 


quire : 

Seventeen mules at 50c each..$ 8.50 
Three drivers at $1.45 each. . . . 4.35 
Three drivers at $1-25 each. . . . 3.75 
Four boys at $1 each. 4.00 


Total .$20.60 


or 7.15 cents per ton; a saving by elec¬ 
tric haulage of 4.39 cents per ton. The 
saving per year at this mine is $2,528 
or $12.64 for each of the 200 working 
days. A mine system of electric haul¬ 
age pays for itself in from one to four 
years out of the saving in cost of opera- 



The First One 


















218 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



Kellogg, Idaho 


Hancock, Mich. 


Ashio, Japan 


tion; in fact one mine has a big elec¬ 
tric locomotive which cost $4,500 and 
saves the company $6,000 each year. 
Some of these lines are very far under¬ 
ground, one copper mine in Northern 
Michigan is operating an electric rail¬ 
way 4,400 ft. below the surface. The 
overhead trolley system is considered 
best for underground work and is the 
method generally employed, the wire 
being suspended on small brackets 
along one side of the tunnel. The trol¬ 
ley pole is short and made of wood, 
while the trolley wheel is of the usual 
type. The locomotives run in either 
direction by manipulating a small 
lever, and some of them weigh as much 
as 13 tons. The steeper the grades in 
a mine the heavier and more powerful 
must be the locomotive. 

These mine engines possess an ad¬ 
vantage not enjoyed by any street car, 
for they can go several hundred feet 
beyond the end of the trolley wire. 
This permits runs to newly opened 
parts of the mine without the necessity 
of extending the overhead wires each 
day, and is accomplished by means of 




a cable reel carried on the car which 
automatically makes connection with 
the end of the feeder wire and un¬ 
winds as the car proceeds, supplying 
current to the motor. On the return 
trip the cable is picked up and re¬ 
wound on the reel. All this is accom¬ 
plished without any attention whatever 
from the motorman. 

Another interesting machine is the 
electric pump car. This consists of a 
very powerful pump driven by a motor 
taking power from the trolley wire. 
The outfit is mounted on wheels and 
can be hurried to any part of the mine 
and is ready to go to work the mo¬ 
ment its destination is reached. It is 
used both in extinguishing fires and 
in keeping down the water until a per¬ 
manent pump can be installed. It 
throws a stream of the same size and 
force as an ordinary steam fire engine. 

Locomotives used in pick-up work, 
hauling cars from the chambers out 
on to main lines where trains are made 
up weigh from 4 to 6 tons. One 
motor will serve 20 or more chambers 
taking out the loaded cars and switch¬ 
ing in the empties, amounting to about 
250 cars per shift. The locomotives 
are so compact they can work where 
mules cannot stand upright. 

Above ground the mine locomotive 
finds plenty to do in hauling materials 
about the yard, switching, and other 
work which would require many horses 
or mules. Coke ovens are now gener¬ 
ally served by electric motor cars with 
immense steel hoppers, called larries. 
The electric larry weighs 3 tons 


Electric Mine Pump 












ENCYCLOPEDIA 


219 


and carries 6 tons of coal. It runs 
on an all-steel track along the top of 
the burning ovens where it is extreme¬ 
ly difficult to work animals on account 
of the heat, flames and gas. The elec¬ 
tric larry shies at none of these and ac¬ 
commodatingly dumps its load into the 
red hot opening on whichever side of 
the track the operator wills. 



6=Ton Electric. Larry 


It was a great day for mules and 
managers when the first electric mine 
locomotive went into business. 

-♦ ♦ 4 - 

WHY “MADE IN GERMANY” 
BEATS “MADE IN U. S.” 


We Americans are convinced we can 
do most things better, and certainly 
much quicker than anybody else. And 
in very many cases this is literally 
true; in other instances it is true only 
in so far as the doing is for home con¬ 
sumption. We look out on the increas¬ 
ing markets of the world and it seems 
impossible that foreigners could prefer 
any make of anything to that stamped 
with a triumphant Eagle. But this 
thinking does not cinch the export 
trade, and what American manufac¬ 
turers don’t know about the very first 
elements of exporting would fill large 
books. 

We have demonstrated what is best 
for us, and therefore we should be the 
judge of what is best for those buyers 
abroad to whom we would sell. In so 
doing we forget that people are much 


alike the world over after all, and that 
one of the things a Yankee most re¬ 
sents is having anybody else assume to 
tell him what he wants! 

In commenting on the import into 
Brazil of pianos and musical instru¬ 
ments, Kuhlow’s German Trade Re¬ 
view (Berlin), speaks of the wealth 
and musical culture of Brazilians and 
adds these significant words: 

It is one of the very best fields for activity 
in all the Latin countries, yet U. S. A. exports 
of musical instruments to it are so small as 
to be hardly worthy of the name. 

The three great exporting nations of the 
world in manufactured articles of all kinds 
are Germany, England and the United States. 
Yet Germany, possessing neither the wealth nor 
the population of either England or the United 
States, surpasses its two rivals in the profita¬ 
ble, complete and thorough way in which they 
obtain the control in every country where they 
seek to make the German goods known. 

It is not altogether a question of price; and 
making the piano as cheap as the German will 
and landing it at Rio de Janeiro, or any of 
the other ports in Brazil, will not capture the 
trade. The Brazilian has wishes, prejudices 
and tastes which must be catered to. The 
German does it. Neither the English nor the 
Americans try. Hence the German gets the 
trade, and everybody talks about the Amer¬ 
ican invasion of this, that and the other coun¬ 
try, but does little or nothing. 

A bit of history will illustrate the 
point. John Stephenson was the first 
and for some years the only builder of 
street cars. One day a manager came 
to his factory in New York, and or¬ 
dered some cars for a new line in Al¬ 
bany. Price and all details but one 
were agreed upon. The buyer said the 
cars would run out to a suburb where 
the people were Scotch, and to please 
them he wanted the outside panels of 
the cars painted in a plaid. Stephen¬ 
son refused to paint the cars in that 
way, and rather than do so let the 
buyer go to another concern for his 
cars, which he did. 

If the Brazilians want their pianos 
polished with stove blacking, and a 
medicine chest over the keyboard, and 
will not have them any other way, and 
are willing to pay a price profitable to 
the manufacturer, it is a short sighted 
policy which fails to fill their wants, 
as the wanters want them, and with • 
goods bearing the words “made in 
II. S.” 













220 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


ELECTRIC STEAM FIREWORKS 


A Novelty In Outdoor Color Display 


The latest thing in fireworks in¬ 
volves no fire at all—that is no fire 
that can be seen, for the most beauti- 



Courtesy, Western Electricion, 

The Fan Effect 

ful effects of color are obtained with 
electric lights and some clouds of 
steam. The current for the electric 
searchlights is secured from any con¬ 
venient supply, and the colored 
screens are the same as used nightly 
in every theater, but the artificial 
clouds necessary as a background for 
the colored lights is interesting. 

A good sized portable boiler, on 
wheels, furnishes the steam which 
must be at about 75 lb. pressure. The 
steam is conducted through iron pipes 
into frames of various shapes, made of 
pipes with numerous small openings. 


The escaping steam rises in a sheet 
producing a moving cloud effect, and 
when, the colored lights are played 
from ten or more searchlights the re¬ 
sult is a novel delight. Not only col¬ 
ored lights but portraits, landscapes, 
marine views and moving pictures 
can be thrown on the clouds of steam 
in combination with changing color 
schemes. One slide which calls out 
special applause is the American flag 
in its red, white and blue, and when 
this is thrown on the steam, the wav¬ 
ing effect is perfect and it is hard to 
believe one is not actually looking on 
a silk flag 50 ft. in length. 



Electric Sunburst 

The flags of all nations will be dis¬ 
played in this manner every night at 
the Jamestown Exposition. 

- »- ♦ ♦- 

Trout Lake, Minnesota, is to be 
drained at a cost of $2,000,000 because 
the water leaks into the Canisteo iron 
mines. 


«»4*«rj*-i':rxuMCE!4 ¥ ♦ v j. 

«* V * X i ) A 4 TU H 

c ♦ * t t * » * • t i « r 

» • T X A. A Jt 3fc -m K R t ft X V ♦ X * 

ttllitf I ****+♦ X* V l 

An Infinite variety of dies are used in railroad conductors’ punches. Did you ever See one of these 
in your ticket? One manufacturer alone has over 500 punch dies, no two alike. 










ENCYCLOPEDIA 


221 


PHOTOGRAPHING A VOLCANO 


One of the most daring feats in 
photography ever undertaken is to be 
attempted by a Mr. James, an Ameri¬ 
can, in the Hawaiian Islands. If he 
does not perish in the effort he will 
secure moving pictures of the lava 
when it overflows the pit of Halemau- 
man, in the immense crater of Kil- 
auea. 

The lava is now boiling and bubbling 
in the pit, shooting upward in cones 
of 75 to 150 ft. in height. The lava 
in the vast cauldron has risen hundreds 
of feet, and it is believed will shortly 
overflow the sides of the pit which 
was 800 ft. deep about two weeks 
ago. 

Mr. James proposes to have the pic¬ 
ture machine near the crater when this 
lava slops over and show in actual 
motion the progress of the running, 
spouting molten mass. Such views 
would not only be thrilling and real¬ 
istic, but possess great educational 
value. 

The time is near at hand when a mo¬ 
tion picture machine will be considered 
as necessary a part of the equipment 
of every high school, as a dictionary 
or maps. 

The same instrument would be used 
in a great variety of ways, teaching 
in an instant and with the utmost 
exactness what would require pages 
of text. In geography, botany, geol¬ 
ogy, natural history, physics, chem¬ 
istry—in fact in every branch the 
stereopticon will be of incalculable 
value. Such machines, and good ones, 
can now be bought for less than $100 
and last practically forever. The mat¬ 
ter of light has also been solved with 
a cheap, simple and effective lighting 
outfit. 

-»--» ♦-- 

The largest and heaviest double gate 
valve in the world was recently in- 
stalled in a power plant at Niagara 
Falls. It contains over 60 tons of 
metal and the parts are over 9 ft. in 
diameter. It is large enough for a 
man to ride through on horseback. 



THE “LARCHMONT” DISASTER 


“A turn of two spokes of the wheel to 
port on both vessels five minutes or less be¬ 
fore they struck, as they were evidently in¬ 
tending to pass each other to the right, 
would have allowed them to pass each other 
uninjured, and the 150 inyiocent persons 
sacrificed would have been alive today, as 
the schooner struck the steamer on her port 
side, the side the schooner should have 
parsed without colliding.”—Editor Marine 
J ournal. 

It's the old, old story of the tragic 
sequence of what appear insignificant 
things. A careless flagman goes back 
only a little way and when the unex¬ 
pected train appears, signals too late, 
and a terrible collision occurs. 

A telegraph operator omits one word 
in the message he is sending and the 
next day men loathe the name they 
had alwavs honored. 

A carpenter is building a dock at a 
summer resort, and his supply of nails 
of suitable size giving out, he finishes 
the job with the smaller ones at hand. 
A month later a merry throng crowd 
the platform and some are drowned 
as the structure goes down. 

An electrician slights a job of wiring 
—it’s concealed, no one will know it— 
but one day the cry of “fire” is heard 
in a vast audience and scores are 
crushed in the panic or burned in the 
flames. 

A clerk is filling a simple, harmless 
prescription, and absent-mindedly takes 
down the wrong bottle. His remorse 
is sincere but it cannot restore life to 
the dead. 

An operator touches the wrong 
lever; the power of mighty engines in¬ 
stantly responds; and a great cauldron 
pours out tons of liquid metal upon 
the helpless men below. 

This is not a sermon. It is the 


% 








222 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



lesson of awful consequences which 
may follow the failure to rightly do 
the things which, by reason of their 
often doing, seem commonplace and 

insignificant. 

-♦♦♦-- 

GREAT TRESTLE BRIDGE ON 
VANCOUVER ISLAND 

A massive wooden trestle which car¬ 
ries the track of the Esquimalt and 


195 Ft. High 

Nanaimo railway over the Niagara 
Canyon in Vancouver Island, B. C., is 
585 ft. long, and the rails are 195 ft. 
above the water. The trestle, which 
contains about three-quarters of a mil¬ 


lion feet of timber says Railway and 
Locomotive Engineering, was built 
when timber was cheaper and steel 
bridges not so much in use. The 
wooden bridge and the wooden trestle 
are purely American products, al¬ 
though invented by Leonardo da Vinci 
in the sixteenth century. 

-»-♦ 4 - 

TRAIN WRECKS GRAIN 
ELEVATOR 


One of the strangest accidents that 
ever befell a grain elevator happened 
at German Valley, Ill., when a 50-mile 
passenger train on the Great Western 
plunged through the building. In the 
wreck the elevator was demolished, 
four passengers were killed and many 
others nearly smothered under the thou¬ 
sands of bushels of grain that poured 
down. The engine missed the build¬ 


Courtesy Grain Dealers* Journal 

A Peculiar Accident 

ing but the mail car went through the 
elevator and the other cars piled up 
around it. 

- » »- ♦ - 

In England the telephone appren¬ 
tice serves three years. In the shop, 
6 months; with experienced instru¬ 
ment setter, 3 months; in switchroom, 
18 months; testroom, 3 months; and 
on instrument faults, 6 months. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

An alloy of two metals often melts 
at a lower temperature than either of 
the metals it contains. 



















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


223 


ENGLISH AUTOMOBILE LIFE GUARD 



The life guard shown 
in the illustration at¬ 
tracted a good deal of 
attention in London last 
month as a possible 
remedy of the many 
fatalities which attend 
the reckless operation of 
motor cars. There has 
been some newspaper 
talk in England indi¬ 
cating there may be a 
law r passed requiring a 
life guard on every 
motor car. The guard 
or “cowcatcher” shown 
looks much less un¬ 
sightly than one would expect of such 
a contrivance, judging by the mon¬ 
strosities- which most street cars in 
American cities carry in front. 

That the protection of pedestrians 
from being run over may become com¬ 
pulsory even in the United States is 
by no means unlikely, for during the 
past winter bills were introduced in 

more than one legislature, though we 
believe none became a law. Owners 

of motor cars would dislike for many 
reasons to be obliged to carry a guard 
although it would not look queer as 
soon as generally used. 

- ♦ ♦ ♦- 

RECESSION OF NIAGARA FALLS 


Greater on Canadian Side 


In a pamphlet by G. Iv. Gilbert of 
the U. S. Geological Survey, much in¬ 
teresting information is given on the 
recession of Niagara Falls. On ac¬ 
count of the greater volume of water 
passing over the Horseshoe Fall, and 
the consequent removal of fragments 
of rock at its base, the wear is very 
much greater than on the American 
side where the w^ater is comparatively 
shallow. 

A record of 63 years, ending 1905, 


English Auto Car Guard 

shows an average recession of the 
Horseshoe Fall of 5 ft., while the 
American Fall has only averaged 3 in. 
per year for 78 years. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

BY RAIL TO TOP OF MATTER- 
HORN 


Only 40 years have passed since the 
first ascent, on foot, was made to the 
top of the Matterhorn. Within four 
years a cog railway will land passen¬ 
gers at the very summit, 14,780 ft. 
above the sea. There will be one al¬ 
most perpendicular tunnel 7,700 ft. 
long, or rather high, for the grade will 
be 85 per cent. At the top a hotel will 
be excavated in the rock, with rooms 
looking out upon the magnificent 
panorama. One room will be supplied 
with oxygen for treatment of tourists 
who suffer from the altitude. The 
ascent will take 90 minutes; fare for 
round trip $10. The trip is now made 
on foot in 24 hours, up and back; cost 
of guides $40. 

- ♦- 

Pat acknowdedged himself puzzled. 
“They call it an indecent electric 
light,” said he, “but it do beat me how 
they make the hairpin bum in the 
bottle.” 












224 




ENCYCLOPEDIA 



JAPS RAISE THE “MIKASA” 


A land to land voyage of three and 
one-half days is planned for a steamer 
Togo’s flagship, the “Mikasa” has line from Halifax to Black Sod, Ire- 
been raised after lying for nearly a land, 
year at the bottom of the 
harbor of Sasebo. It will 
be remembered the bat¬ 
tleship exploded in a 
mysterious manner and 
sunk in a few moments 
while at anchor. The 
cause of the disaster is 
now known to have been 
spontaneous combustion 
due to the decomposition 
of chemicals. The Japs 
never consider a vessel 
lost simply because she 
has gone down. All the 
Russian ships which were 
sunk at 'Port Arthur 
have been raised and are 
now afloat and in service 
of the Japanese navy. 

Japan has recently 
launched her thirty- 
t h i r d destroyer built 
since the war, has recov¬ 
ered two of her own bat¬ 
tleships and is building 
seven more heavy fight¬ 


ing ships. 


The “Mikasa” as It Appeared When First Brought Into Dock 
After One Year on the Bottom 


PROPER CARE OF AUTOMOBILE 
SPRINGS 


The springs of an automobile should 
be well looked after and when the car 
is not in use, jacks should be placed 
under the frame, in order to take the 
weight of the car off the springs and 
tires, says Automobile Topics. This 
serves a double purpose, inasmuch that 
the springs are allowed to retain their 
proper shape, and the tires will last 
longer if the strain is removed when 
not in use. When the weight of the 
car is taken off the springs, it will be 
found an easy matter to insert the 
point of a screw-driver, or any similar 
tool, between the spring-plates, forcing 
them apart sufficiently to inject grease 
or any lubricant, between the leaves. 


This will remove all possibility of the 
springs squeaking when riding over 
uneven surfaces, and will always im¬ 
prove the riding comfort of the car. 

—— ♦ ♦ ♦-- 

SNAKE=BITE LANCET 


An inexpensive instrument called 
the “snake-bite lancet,” the invention 
of Sir Lander Brunton, lias been in¬ 
troduced in India with splendid re¬ 
sults. It is being distributed by the 
government in an effort to reduce the 
fearful loss of life which amounts to 
75,000 persons each year. 

A report by one person is to the 
effect that he had saved the lives of 
20 persons bitten by cobras and karaits 
within the last year by the use of one 
lancet. 















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


225 


SUICIDE STOPS WATER SUPPLY 


One man in his successful effort to 
kill himself threw 400 men out of 
employment for three days and caused 
the closing down of a large industry. 
The plant, which is built on the shore 
of Lake Michigan, in Chicago, requires 
immense quantities of water, which is 
pumped from the lake through an 18- 
in. main. The man was seen to jump 
into the water near the intake, but 
could not be rescued. A few minutes 
later the water supply failed and the 
works were shut down. 

Owing to the great blocks of ice 
which a storm was driving upon the 
shore it was impossible for divers to go 
down for three days, when the body 
was found tightly jammed in an elbow 
of the big pipe. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

CONCRETE PRESSURE PIPES 


Pipes made of reinforced concrete 
for transmitting water under pressure 
have been constructed. These pipes are 
really one continuous tube, each sev¬ 
eral hundred feet long. In diameter 
they are from 2 ft. to 3 ft., the longest 
single section being GOO ft. The in¬ 
side is made quite smooth, planed lum¬ 
ber being used in the forms. 

• -- 

CART BEFORE THE HORSE 


The very latest Paris novelty in the 
vehicle line is a four-wheeled surrey 
in which the cart is actually before the 
horse. Another feature which attracts 
attention is the driver, who is a woman. 



A 1907 Model 


This 1-hp. motor starts and stops on 
command, and has two speeds forward; 
the machine is not constructed to re¬ 
verse. No lines are used, the convey¬ 
ance being directed by means of a 
steering wheel. The outfit has not yet 

been arrested for fast driving. 

-♦- 

EGG=BLOWINCi ON ICE 


A new game which has been quite 
a fad in Europe the past winter is egg¬ 
blowing on ice. The Illustrated Lon¬ 
don News says: 



Good for the Lungs 


Every woman player has a man for 
partner. Parallel tracks are marked 
out for each pair and all start level, 
the ladies, on skates, forming a line at 
one end of the course, the men, wear¬ 
ing shoes or boots, at the other. Part¬ 
ners face partners. First the ladies 
skate forward, blowing the eggs along 
with fans. As soon as they reach the 
other end, the men fall flat and wrig¬ 
gle along, blowing the egg back again. 
The partners whose egg gets back first 
are the winners. The sport is immense 
and even the gravest dignitaries have 
been known to bend to its charms. 
-» ♦ ♦- 

TO BUILD AUTO TOLL ROAD 


To promote a toll road would seem 
like going back to early days, but a 
$10,000,000 company has already be¬ 
gun construction on a 45-mile auto 
toll highway in New Jersey. There 
are to be two 35-ft. tracks, divided by 
a 30-ft. roadway elevated 4 ft., to be 
occupied by a double track railroad 'or 
motor drawn trains. 


« 
























226 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


PHOTOGRAPHS TELEGRAPHED 

1,000 WILES 

Great Improvements Make Transmission a Practical Success 

[Extract from translation, and photographs shown, are reproduced from copyrighted article 

in L’lllustration, Paris, by special permission] 


Professor Korn, of the Munich Uni¬ 
versity, has so perfected his previous 
apparatus for telegraphing photo¬ 
graphs that he pronounces the trans¬ 
mission a practical success. His for¬ 
mer accomplishments were remarkable, 
but the pictures were far from satis¬ 
factory. He has now wired portraits 
from Munich to Nuremberg, a distance 


which has to be transmitted is placed 
on a transparent glass cylinder which 
revolves slowly and at the same time 
moves from right to left. A ray of 
light is thrown on the cylinder by 
means of an electric lamp and lens, 
and when the ray of light reaches the 
interior of the cylinder it is brighter or 
darker according to the coloring of 



Photograph of Prof. Kor. in his Laboratory, with Apparatus for Telegraphing Pictures 


of 100 miles, and also made trans¬ 
mission over 1,125 miles of wire in his 
own laboratory, in 18 minutes. He 
expects with some changes to soon have 
apparatus which will overcome the high 
resistance of submarine cables and en¬ 
able him to send a photograph 6 by 7 
in. from London to New York in 12 
minutes. 

Reference to the diagram will make 
the following general description plain 
to our readers: The photograph 


that particular part of the photograph 
over which it passes. 

Inside the cylinder is some seleni¬ 
um, which transmits electrical current 
in proportion to the intensity of the 
light brought to bear on it. The selen¬ 
ium transmits current more rapidly in 
bright light and less rapidly as the 
light decreases. The selenium is con¬ 
nected with the wire over which the 
photograph has to be transmitted. 

The receiving apparatus consists of 



















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


227 



Photograph of Crown Prince of Germany, Transmitted 1,000 Miles: Large Picture is Reproduction 

of Small Original in Lower Corner 



























































































































































































228 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



an electrical Nernst lamp placed in¬ 
side a glass cylinder covered with sensi¬ 
tized paper. The lamp burns more or 
less brightly according to the varying 
current transmitted through the selen¬ 
ium at the other end of the wire. It 
thus reproduces the exact shade of the 
original photograph, provided that the 
cylinders at each end of the wire re¬ 
volve at exactly the same speed. The 
revolution of the cylinders is regulated 


so that speed is identical at both ends. 

Professor Korn was born in 1870 at 
Breslau and studied at Leipsic, Berlin 
and Paris. For 11 years past he has 
been professor in Munich. His first 
public announcement of the transmit¬ 
ting apparatus was made three years 
ago, at which time the pictures were 
blurred and uncertain. He has worked 
constantly ever since and his pictures 
now are clear and accurate. 



A GEARED LOCOMOTIVE 


Where ordinary locomotives are not 
suitable for hauling timber, ore cars, 
or for other similar service on steep 
grades, uneven track and 
sharp curves, the geared 
locomotive is often used. 

Unlike most locomo¬ 
tives, the engine is lo¬ 
cated near the center and 
operates a longitudinal 
shaft, provided with uni¬ 
versal joints similar to 
those in an automobile. 

The power is transmitted 
to the first and last pair 
of wheels by 2 to 1 bevel 
gears driven by the longi¬ 
tudinal shaft, the second 
and third pair of wheels 
receiving power by 
means of connecting rods 
as shown in the illustration. The en¬ 
gine is of the opposed type and re¬ 
volves twice to every revolution of the 
drivers. This gives it great tractive 
force, and as the entire weight of the 
locomotive rests on the drivers, slip¬ 
ping is reduced to a minimum. It is 


said that the tractive force of the loco¬ 
motive shown in the illustration and 
which weighs 52 tons is double that of 
an ordinary locomotive of the same 

4 / 

weight. 


Powerful but Ugly 

A new food prepared from kelp, a 
long, slimy, tubular sea plant, has been 
placed on the market. The prepara¬ 
tion is made into confections, jams, 
preserves, marmalades, sweet and sour' 
pickles and citron. The food is called 
seatron. 



























ENCYCLOPEDIA 


229 


PHOTOGRAPHING WITHOUT PLATES 


A short time ago I was entirely out 
of photographic plates and wishing to 
get some pictures of some snow scenes 
I thought of putting regular artificial 
light printing paper in the 
place of the regular plate. 

\\ ell, it certainly worked 
fine. I enclose a negative; 
also a proof made from it. 

This is not, of course, a 
beautiful picture by any 
means. My reason for 
taking this is because I did 
some wiring at this box 
this summer and hence es¬ 
pecially interested. 

By experimenting with 
the paper I found that if 
the back of the paper were 
covered with a small 
amount of lard or oil and 
this allowed to soak in just 
before printing that it 
would render the paper al¬ 
most transparent and a 
print could be made by this process in 
about one-third of the time the other 
would take. After the oil, or whatever 
is used, has soaked in pretty thor¬ 
oughly a soft cloth or blotter must be 
used to wipe off all surplus oil. Great 
care must be taken so as not to allow 
any of the oil to come on the face of 
the negative, because when this is 
placed for printing the oil or lard will 
get on the printing paper and will keep 
it from toning, the same as in handling 
the paper with the hands if they are 
moist. 

The best exposure is a minute and 
ten seconds with a wide open top. The 
paper may be of any standard grade 
of lamplight printing paper. You will 
probably notice the brownish tint on 
the one I am sending; this is due to 
the developer being old. I have some 
better ones, but they are pasted in a 
book. The advantage over plates is 
this: They can be loaded in the plate 
holder in daylight; that is, not too 
bright, but should be loaded under a 
yellow or subdued light. Then they 


may also be developed in the same 
light. In printing the picture the film 
side of the paper should be placed 
against the printing paper the same as 


with plates. Of course, pictures of 
this kind are not practical except for 
time exposures out of doors. But tiffs 
is a more convenient way of having the 
negatives, and, what is better, they 
are a whole lot cheaper.—Stewart H. 
Leland, Lexington, Ill. 

-♦ - ♦ ♦- 

WRECK OF WRECKING TRAIN 


A wrecking train on a Michigan rail¬ 
road, while running at 50 miles an 
hour to reach a wreck, was itself 
wrecked by going through a bridge, and 
down 40 ft. into a river 20 ft. deep. 
The car containing the crew of 11 men, 
who were asleep, landed on top of other 
cars, and the occupants all escaped 
drowning by climbing out through the 
end of the car. Strange to say, none 
of them was seriously injured. Six 
cars, including the 75-ton hoisting 
crane went down, but the locomotive, 
which was pushing the train, did not, 
being derailed and hanging partly 
over the break. 













230 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


FOOTBALL ON ROLLER SKATES 


A new English sport is football on 
roller skates. The Illustrated London 
News says: Football on roller skates 
was inaugurated recently for men at 
Brighton skating rink, and the pastime 
was very soon taken up by women. 
The game is played six a side; there 
are three forwards, two backs, and a 
goalkeeper. The goals are 6 ft. high 
and 7 wide, and the regulation foot¬ 
ball is used, with a little over a pint 
of water in it to keep the ball from 


FREIGHTER “COLE” LARGEST 
LAKE SHIP 


The largest fresh water vessel in the 
world this month is the “Thomas F. 
Cole/’ launched at Detroit. It secures 
the title by being five inches longer 
than 605 ft. which is the length of each 
of two other lake freighters which will 
go into service at the same time this 
season. When seen at a distance none 
but experts can distinguish the extra 
five inches that make the vessel rank 
first in size. 



“Hustling is Allowed, But Not Charging” 


rising. Twelve feet in front of each 
goal is drawn the penalty line. Down 
each side run the boundaries. When 
the ball gets into touch it is not thrown 
in, but is placed on the boundary line, 
and pushed into play with the side 
of the foot. Hustling is allowed, but 
not charging. . Outside his own pen¬ 
alty area the goalkeeper must not han¬ 
dle the ball. Two minutes is allowed 
to repair skates. 

The game is fast and furious and 
creates great excitement. 


FIRST AMERICAN WINTER BAL¬ 
LOON FLIGHT 


The first winter balloon flight un¬ 
dertaken in this country was made at 
Pittsfield, Mass., January 25, by Leo 
Stevens and Capt. Lovelace. The 
ascent was made at 3:10 p. m. with 
temperature reading l# 5 above zero. 
At 3,500 ft. the instruments recorded 
25° below zero, and fearing death from 
freezing a descent was made, landing 
two miles from the starting point. 











ENCYCLOPEDIA 


231 


PUMPING WATER 

FROM COAL MINES 


The cost of anthracite is always 
more or less affected by the 500,000,000 
gal. of water that is pumped out of the 
Pennsylvania mines every day. The 
1,000 powerful engines deliver from 
mine bottom to surface 500,000 gal. of 
water a minute. In 1905 the average 
pumped out per day was 633,000,000 
gal. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

TROLLEY SLEEPING CARS 


Trolley sleeping cars are now in reg¬ 
ular service on interurban lines in Illi¬ 
nois connecting two large cities 150 
miles apart. The cars differ from the 
conventional sleeper in having revolv¬ 
ing chairs instead of cross seats, which 
make the lower berth, and in wooden 
roller curtains which come up out of 
the floor to form partitions, with 18 
in. between the berth and the parti¬ 
tion in which to dress. Each parti¬ 
tion has a cloth curtain-door. There 
is nothing unusual about the upper 
berths; passengers clamor for them 
just about the same as on steam lines. 
The cars are 56 ft. long and weigh 50 
tons each, accommodating only 20 pas¬ 
sengers. The service is already in 
considerable demand. 



EXHIBITION BY 

FRENCH FIREMEN 


At the international gathering of 
firemen at Milan the rope climbing ac- 



Rope Climbing Test 

complishments of the French attracted 
much attention. A lofty wooden struc¬ 
ture was erected to represent a tall 
building, and up the side of this the 
Paris firemen climbed on ropes with 
great rapidity and daring. 

-♦ ♦ ♦ - 

WINS WATER WALKING BET 


Captain Oldrive won in his novel un¬ 
dertaking of walking on the water from 
Cincinnati to New Orleans, a distance 
of 1,600 miles, in 45 days. The prize 
was $5,000, and he had 45 minutes to 
spare. Ilis wife accompanied him all 
the way in a rowboat. He used shoes 
made of cedar 4 ft. 5 in. long, 5 in. 
wide and 7 in. deep, fitted with hinged 
webs like a duck’s foot. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

The effective range of torpedoes is 
increasing, and is now from 3,500 to 
4,000 yd. 


Trolley Sleeping Car 

































232 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



NOTABLE FOREIGN LOCOMOTIVES.— Express passenger locomotive of the Bombay, 
Baroda & Central India Railway. These engines are driven by Europeans, each driver 
having two natives as firemen. The gauge of the railway is 5 ft. 6 in. 


A SECOND TOWER OF BABEL 


When the Eiffel tower was com¬ 
pleted in 1889 there arose in England 
a popular demand to go the French 
one better, and it was decided to build 
a tower which should make Mr. Eiffel’s 
tower look like a pigmy in comparison. 
Money was raised, a company formed, 
and the w y ork begun on a grand scale. 
The English tower was to be 1,200 ft. 
high, and at various levels was to con¬ 
tain museums, theatres, restaurants and 
many other places of amusement. 

The location selected was Wumbley 
and four years w T as allowed for its 
completion. When the vast structure 
reached the first landing, 150 ft. above 
the ground, all of a sudden public in¬ 
terest ceased, and no more money could 
be secured to continue the work. For 
16 years the massive framework has 
stood as a monument of excited folly, 
and now it is being wrecked for what 
salvage there may be in the steel. 



MILLIONS OF HORSEPOWER 
IN UNITED STATES 


To make the wheels go around in all 
the mills and factories in the United 
States more than 15,000,000 hp. are 
required every day, which is growing 
some when compared w r ith a total of 
2,346,000 in 1870. The increase for 
the five years ending 1905 was 39 per 
cent. In that vear the division was: 


Owned— Hoi'sepower. 

Steam .10,664,560 

Gas . 289,514 

Water . 1,647,969 

Electric . 1,138,208 

All other. 91,784 

Rented, miscellanies. 632,905 


Total in use, 1905 ....14,464,940 


Even these figures, large as they are, 
must be considerably under the actual, 
for many power users are at remote 
points, where the census man seldom 
visits. 

It is interesting to note the increase 
during the 10 years from 1890 to 1900 
in the following powers: 


Steam power increased. 77.7 per cent 

Gas engines increased.1,408.9 per cent 

Water power increased. 15.9 per cent 

Electric increased.1,895.4 per cent 


Steam power shows an increase of 
77.7 per cent for the 10 years ending 
1900, hut it is a smaller gain by 31.9 
per cent than for the previous 10 years. 
When the census of* 1910 is taken the 
gas engine will doubtless show another 
big advance and steam a corresponding 
loss. 

-»-♦ ♦- 

The gold, silver, lead, copper and 
zinc mines of Colorado produced 
$50,000,000 during 1906. 


An English Folly 
































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


233 



This stern-wheeler was built in England, taken apart, shipped to Terra del Fuego, and 
reassembled there. It is used in dredging gold. 


ELECTRIC FANS FOR FURNACES 


A novel application of electric fans 
has been made the past winter with 
satisfactory success in connection with 
hot air furnaces in residences. One 
section of the cold air duct leading 
from outdoors is made of 17-in. pipe, 
and in this is placed a 16-in. electric 
fan. The fan is of the ordinary sum¬ 
mer type and runs from the same sup¬ 
ply which lights the house, the expense 
being about one-half cent per hour 
while running. Its use is only neces¬ 
sary, however, when heating the house 
early in the morning, or during very 
windy or extremely cold days. When 
the fan is in motion it forces a great 
supply of air into the heating chamber 
of the furnace, and from there through 
the various pipes to all the registers 
in the house. The cost of installation 
is trifling, it will last for many years, 
and insures plenty of fresh, hot air in 
any room at any time. A furnace ex¬ 
pert says that with the fan system 
much smaller warm air pipes can be 
used and still secure abundant heat. 
-♦ ♦ ♦- 

AIR BRAKES FOR AUTOS 


Air brakes may replace the present 
method in general use on automobiles, 
the compression being secured direct 
from the motor cylinders without the 
use of any compression machinery. It 
is estimated that approximately one- 
tenth of the engine power of a car 
would be required to work the com¬ 


pressor. By the direct method this loss 
would be entirely eliminated. 

The dimensions of brake cylinders 
for cars of the heavier type have been 
estimated as follows: 

6,000 pounds.5 in. diam. x 12 in. long 

5,000 pounds.4^4 in. diam. x 12 in. long 

4,000 pounds.4 in. diam. x 12 in. long 

3,000 pounds.3 y 2 in. diam. x 12 in. long 

2,000 pounds.3 in. diam. x 12 in. long 

-♦- 

TREE STOOD WITHOUT ROOTS 


In Tasmania, Australia, a large gum 
tree was to be cut down and the work¬ 
men sawed across the trunk two feet 
above the ground. When the cut was 
finished the tree slipped off the base, 
but instead of falling remained upright 
as shown in the illustration. It re¬ 
mained in this remarkable position for 
several days until a windstorm toppled 
it over. The stump will be seen at the 
right of the picture which is repro¬ 
duced from a photograph taken by the 
editor of the Australian Traveler. 



The Rootless Tree 


\ 

1 
































234 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


PHOTOGRAPHING THE VOICE 


The voice camera, by means of which 
speech is recorded photographically in 
wave-like lines, was made possible by 
the high-speed telegraph system de¬ 
scribed in Popular Mechanics for 
April, 1905. By this system writing 
is recorded telegraphically at the rate 



Record Produced by Human Voice 


of 40,000 words per hour, against the 
Morse instruments 7 400. 

In photographing the voice a micro¬ 
phone is substituted for the transmitter 
and the vibrations cause a mirror in 
the receiver to oscillate, while the tones 
are reproduced on paper in such a way 
as to indicate the quality of the speak¬ 
er’s voice: black and strong for a 
strong voice; small and fine for a weak 
voice. The instrument will be useful 
in testing voices and also in showing 
their development under cultivation. 

Another adaptation of the system is 
its use in conjunction with a vibrator 
which makes vowel sounds audible to 
the deaf. The possibilities of the appa¬ 
ratus in this field are unlimited and 
its practical efficiency has already been 
demonstrated in the case of several 
deaf and dumb persons. 

--»-♦ ♦- 

MAKING CLIMATE TO ORDER 


The Colorado river was again re¬ 
turned to its original channel on Feb¬ 
ruary 11. If it stays there the Salton 
Sea, covering 2,800 square miles, will 
in a few years dry up and the inun¬ 
dated land be again recovered. The 
evaporation from the sea during the 
past six months has caused a startling 
change in climate, rain and snow fall¬ 
ing over vast areas which for centuries 


have been dusty deserts. Even Death 
Valley has had copious rains, which if 
continued would soon make it inhabi¬ 
table. People whose land is above 
high water mark want the sea perpetu¬ 
ated. 

The interesting demonstration of a 
changed climate bears out the predic¬ 
tions of French engineers who want 
to cut canals and let the waters of the 
ocean in upon the Sahara Desert, with 
view to changing the climate of all 
northern Africa and making tillable 
millions of acres which are now worth¬ 
less desert. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

DOORYARD GOLD MINING IN 
SIBERIA 


At the Orsk gold-fields in Siberia 
the peasants mine the gold in their 
own yards. Our illustration, from the 
Illustrated London News, shows them 
eagerly at work, though the tempera¬ 
ture registers 20° R. below zero 
(—13° F.). 

These prospectors are called “trib- 
utors.” They may sink shafts wherever 
they like, provided they go down no 
further than water-level (usually 



Primeval Mine Hoist 












ENCYCLOPEDIA 


235 



Peasants Mining Gold in Front of Their Huts 


about 60 ft.), treat all quartz extract¬ 
ed at the mill of the ground landlord, 
and sell all gold extracted to him at a 
rate previously fixed. The rate leaves 
a fair profit for the peasant and a good 
one for the landlord. No charge is 
made for the use of the mill and the 
“tributors” frequently make fortunes. 
-» ♦ ♦- 

CORRUGATED SKIN FOR PLEAS= 
URE BOATS 


A patent has been granted on a novel 
feature in boat construction. The 
Motor Boat says: In boats built on 
the new system the skin may be in two 
or more thicknesses, the inner being 
corrugated and fitted transversely from 
gunwale to gunwale over the keel. This 
corrugated inner skin corresponds to 
the usual inner framing and renders 
it unnecessary. This inner planking 
is covered with a fabric saturated with 
a w r ater-prcof solution and on it is 
worked one or more diagonal skins of 
light veneer, according to the strength 
required. The outer skin is worked 
longitudinally in narrow strips similar 
to the well-known packed form of con¬ 


struction, the joints being filled with a 
water-proof solution and forced To¬ 
gether under heavy pressure. When 
this is smoothed down the outer skin 
is practically seamless. The whole 
structure is fastened together with cop¬ 
per rivets and burrs. Where it is de¬ 
sired to have an especially smooth ex¬ 
terior finish, the outer surface is 
roughened and covered with an elastic 



Corrugated Skin 


cement. Upon this another layer of 
fabric is stretched and rolled into place 
with hot irons. Two or three coats of 
paint on this surface produce an abso¬ 
lutely smooth finish without the possi¬ 
bility of leak or deterioration from the 
weather. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

Automobiles are getting to be quite 
handy. The latest accessory is an elec¬ 
tric cigar lighter which is guaranteed 
to work in a hurricane. 














236 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


4 

r 


QUEER LOCOMOTIVES IN BOLIVIA 


The Siamese-twin effect illustrated 
in the picture is the result of a definite 
purpose, and not as might well be 
imagined, a freak locomotive made to 
pull itself apart. This type of en¬ 
gine, built in England for the Bolivian 
Railways, is so constructed on account 
of the terrific grades which frequently 
are as steep as 1 ft. in 35. Under such 
conditions if a single boiler of neces¬ 
sary length was used all the water 
would frequently be at one end or the 


CHINA SHEETS INSTEAD OF 
WALL PAPER 


The perfection of a method of manu¬ 
facturing porcelain in large sheets one 
inch thick is announced in England. 
The sheets can be decorated to order 
in any desired design and then glazed 
by firing. When placed on the walls 
of rooms the effect is said to be beauti¬ 
ful, and of course the material is 
highly sanitary. This would obviate 
for all time redecorating, wall paper¬ 
ing and spring house cleaning, and de- 



Courtesy The Locomotive, London 

Built This Way on Account of Grades 


other of the boiler, with disastrous re¬ 
sults. Hence the Fairlie type*- as it is 
known, was designed, using two boil¬ 
ers, each fired independently of the 
other. The machine is really two 
small complete locomotives backed to¬ 
gether and connected permanently. 
The w^ater tanks are on each side be¬ 
low the cab floor; the coal storage is 
in the side tanks above. 

The center line of the boilers is only 
4 ft. 10J in. above the rails; the track 
gauge is 2 ft. 6 in.; the drivers are 2 
ft. 6 in.; cylinders, 12^ in. by 16-in. 
ffroke; diameter of boilers, 3 ft. 5J in.; 
length of boiler tubes, 9 ft. 3f in.; 
rigid wheel base, 6 ft.; total wheel 
base, 29 ft. 44 in.; boiler pressure, 160 
lb.; weight, 52 tons. 


prive the lady of the house of the tw T o 
grandest events of the year. 

The china is made of a mixture of 
ground Cornish clay and French flint 
boulders, and can be sold for $2.50 per 
square yard. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

EIFFEL WIRELESS STATION 


The French army has been experi¬ 
menting with the Eiffel Tower as a 
wireless station with such excellent re¬ 
sults the government has decided to 
make it a permanent station. It thus 
becomes the highest station in the 
world, although other stations are in 
operation at greater altitudes. Mes¬ 
sages have been exchanged with Berlin 
and other cities. 





















TUNNELS BUI LT AB OVE GROUND 

To be Undermined and Sunk 80 Ft. When Completed—A Very Unusual 

Undertaking 


Two underground depots and a con¬ 
siderable length of connecting tunnel, 
for the use of the Metropolitan subway 
lines of Paris, are being constructed 
on a public street, and when completed 
will be sunk into position. In other 
words, this unusual piece of engineer¬ 
ing work consists in building a tunnel 
in the open air.' 

The main line of the Metropolitan 
railway crosses the two branches of the 


Seine and the Isle of Cite, which di¬ 
vides the river, at a point just south 
of the Bridge St. Michel. That por¬ 
tion of the line which crosses the 
island is being built in the street, 
where the great steel framework rising 
to the top of the third story of abut¬ 
ting buildings attracts much attention. 
The sections which are to cross the 
river have alreadv been described in 

i) 

these pages, having been built on land 



Framework of Depot and Section of Tunnel; Weight 18,000 Tons 

































238 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 





mmw 


ft**:* 




:\VlU 



l ! 

f J 



- 


\ 

rt. 



Tunnel Being Built in the Street 


and floated to location, where they are 
being sunk to the required level below 
the bottom of the river. The land and 
water sections mentioned are 5,800 ft. 
in length. 

The illustrations convey a good idea 
of the construction. When completed 
the inside measurement of the tunnel 
will be 78 ft. wide by 56 ft. high. 
There are two land sections 1,500 ft. 


and 1,800 ft. long respectively. In¬ 
side the steel framework will he placed 
a thick lining of concrete to exclude 
water, while the sides ‘and arch will be 
covered with white enameled tiling and 
the floor with cut stone blocks and 
slabs, upon which the track will he laid. 
When the metal section is finished, ex¬ 
cavation will be made beneath it and 
the great mass allowed to gradually 






























































































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


239 


settle to permanent position at the 
proper depth. 

Two depots are included in the work 
described, both located on the island. 
These are obtained by enlarging the 
tunnel to a ring-shaped construction, 
with provision for ticket offices, wait¬ 
ing rooms, etc. One of the depots with 
500 ft. of tunnel weighs 18,000 tons. 
The reader will readily appreciate the 
nicety of operation by which all these 
metal sections are to be sunk to an 
exact level and then bolted together 
where the end of one length joins that 
of the next. The project is one 
of the largest and most interesting en¬ 
gineering undertakings in the world at 
the present time. When the tunnel 



Showing t. tcrior Work 


and depots have been sunk, the street 
will be replaced and paved as before. 
All the riveting is being done with 
pneumatic hammers of American make. 


-» ♦ ♦ 


PLAN TO DIG INTO A LIVE VOLCANO 


And Build a Breakwater with the Foaming Molten Lava—Most Un= 

heard=of Engineering Project Ever Conceived 


Volcanoes have ever been considered sources of tremendous destructive 
force, uncontrollable in their action and of no useful purpose to man. The 
unusual and daring proposition is now made to make at least one active vol¬ 
cano perform constructive work of positive commercial value. The idea seems 
to have been adapted from the familiar one of drawing molten iron from a 
furnace and conducting it along the earthen floor through shallow open trenches 
into molded spaces where it cools and becomes the pig iron of trade. 

Hilo is the important seaport on the east coast of the Island of Hawaii, 
in the Sandwich Islands group. Its harbor facilities are insufficient to meet 
the demands of present day commerce, and in order to provide suitable shelter, 
great breakwaters must be constructed at large cost. Congress has been peti¬ 
tioned to make the necessary appropriation, but so far has not advanced beyond 
an order for a preliminary survey. The people of Hilo evidently realize that 
Congress is a long way oft' and, unless action is secured soon, propose to 
"tap an active volcano on the island and make it furnish the material and do 
the work of construction at the same time. If the plan works a great sea 
wall will have been built, of greater extent and weight than any ever before 
constructed by human skill. 

The idea is to construct a big trench from Mt. Kilaueau to the shore and 
then tunnel into the pit of one of the craters and release the molten lava, just 
as a furnaceman opens a cupola when making pig iron. One difference will 
be that where the founder uses a long iron rod to poke a hole, the volcano is to 
be opened by letting off a big charge of high explosives. 

Notwithstanding the somewhat fishy nature of the story, it is stated “engi¬ 
neers who have been considering the scheme are strongly inclined to the opinion 
that it is not impracticable/’ One thing is certain, there will be plenty of 
Yankee engineers who will not hesitate to undertake so difficult and dangerous 
a venture, if the necessary funds are provided. 








240 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



PECULIAR WRECK OF STEAMER 


One of the most unique marine pic¬ 
tures ever made is that of the Steamer 
“Carrington” which went on the rocks 
recently. The ship was stranded in 
such a way that at low tide the stern 
being in deep water went down with 
the ebb, see-sawing the bow high in the 
air. Although the vessel was in this 


perilous position several days the hull 
did not break and the ship was finally 

pulled off, floated and saved. 

-»- — ♦- 

MOVING PICTURES SECURE 
NAVAL RECRUITS 


The navy department is using mov¬ 
ing pictures depicting the sailor’s life, 
as a means of securing recruits for the 
service. The pictures show all phases 
of the life, from coaling the vessel and 
scrubbing decks to sham battles and 
drills. The apparatus is making a 
tour of the northwestern states, where 
there are many Swedes and Norwe¬ 
gians, who make the best sailors. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

MOTOR CAR FOR WIRELESS 
WORK 


An interesting application of the 
motor car has been made by the Mar¬ 
quis Solari, secretary to Marconi. It 
consists of a wireless station complete 
with generator, receiving and sending 
apparatus, and a telescopic pole which 
can be quickly extended to considerable 
height. The station will work reliably 
over distances up to 90 miles. Some 
of them will be used in the Italian 
army. 



In Traveling Gear Tower Raised 















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


241 



AIRSHIP THAT STEERS LIKE A BOBSLED 



In Mid-Air Ready for Flight 


From San Francisco, famous for 
aeronauts and airships, comes a new 
idea in construction. The inventor is 
August Kidder, who lias been working 
on the problem for the past seven 
years. The illustrations show his lat¬ 
est model, 27 ft. long, with which he 
has secured results he considers very 
satisfactory; in fact, so promising, he 
is now at work on a large ship which 
will be 250 ft. long. 

He uses two gas bags, the forward 
one being the smaller, and with this 
he steers, the larger following in the 
same wav a train of cars follows an 
engine around a curve. The motor and 
operator are carried on frames sus¬ 
pended from the bags, of which there 
may be several if desired. The bow of 

the forward hag is cone-shaped. 

-» - » ♦- 

BJG BATTLESHIPS ARE THE 
BEST 


Lieutenant-Commander William S. 
Sims, inspector of target practice in 
the navy, in an article written for the 
United States Naval Institute i* reply 
to an argument by Captain Mahan for 
small ships, declares for big ships of 
the all big gun type, not only because 
they are the more efficient, ton for ton, 
than smaller battleships, but because 
they are more economical in both origi¬ 
nal* cost and cost of maintenance. 

“A fleet of ten 20,000-ton ships,” 


says Lieutenant-Commander Sims, 
“each having a broadside fire of eight 
12-in. guns, or 80 in all, would cost 
about $100,000,000. A fleet of 20 
smaller vessels, each having a broadside 
fire of four 12-in. guns, or 80 in all, 
and the usual intermediate guns, would 
cost about $120,000,000 or $130,000,- 
000, though I previously assumed the 
cost of these fleets to be equal, in order 
to accentuate the tactical value of large 
ships. 

“It requires fewer men to man the 
main battery guns of an all big gun 
ship than of a mixed battery ship. For 
example, it requires fewer men to serve 
the ten 12-in. guns of the ‘Dread¬ 
nought’ than the four 12-in. and six¬ 
teen 6-in. guns of the ‘Missouri.’ 

“It will require no more men for the 
‘Dreadnought’s’ crew than it would for 
the ‘Missouri’s,’ if she had a comple¬ 
ment of men, as measured by Euro¬ 
pean standards, which neither she nor 

any of our battleships has.” 

-♦- 

PRIVACY ON PARTY TELEPHONE 

LINES 


A New York inventor claims to have 
perfected a device that will put an 
end to eavesdropping on party tele¬ 
phone lines. The device can be con¬ 
nected to any ’phone and only those 
carrying on the conversation can hear 
what is said. 














242 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


VERY LATEST LARGEST OFFICE 
BUILDING 


The largest office building in the 
world this month is the proposed down¬ 



Contains 4,000 Offices 

town terminal of the Hudson River 
Tunnel Co. This structure will rise 
22 stories above the street and extend 
down through 25 ft. of basements. 
Features of the building include: 
Large arcade for stores; 4,000 offices 



accommodating 10,000 people; 30 
elevators; 5,000 windows, and 30,000 
incandescent lights; while in the base¬ 
ment depots tunnel and subway trains 
can be taken for Jersey City, Brooklyn, 
and all parts of New York City. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

DYNAMITE 


By D. S. Brewster, Explosive Expert 


Dynamite was discovered in 1866 by 
Alfred Nobell. The principle consist¬ 
ed in using an absorbent commonly 
called a “dope,” which would take up 
the nitroglycerine and hold it some¬ 
what after the manner of a sponge. 
A suitable “dope” should be of cellular 
structure, so that the nitroglycerine 
may be subdivided into minute glob¬ 
ules, each globule held separately in its 
own cell, completely isolated from the 
others. In this condition its sensitive¬ 
ness is greatly reduced, depending, of 
course, upon the amount of nitroglyc¬ 
erine absorbed. 

Nitroglycerine is made by treating 
a quantity of exceedingly pure glyc¬ 
erine with a mixture of nitric and sul¬ 
phuric acid. The proportion common¬ 
ly adopted is 3 parts of nitric acid, 
5 parts of sulphuric acid, and from 
1 to 1.15 parts of glycerine. The glyc¬ 
erine is added very slowly and with 
constant stirring. Wood pulp, nitro¬ 
glycerine, sodium nitrate and sulphur 
are thoroughly incorporated and put 
in cartridges, usually 1^ by 8 in. in 
size, these cartridges being packed in 
paraffine paper. 

An explosion is a chemical reaction 
which is completed in an exceedingly 
short period of time with the evolution 
of a large quantity of gas at a very 
high temperature. If this reaction oc¬ 
curs in a body which is closely con¬ 
fined, the expansive effort of the highly 
heated gases produces disrupted ef¬ 
fects. If the suddenness of the re¬ 
action is very great, disrupted action 
upon solid objects in contact with the 
body may be obtained even when it 
is not confined, because the cohesion of 
these objects can be overcome more 


Section of Tunnel 














ENCYCLOPEDIA 


243 


readily in an instant of time than the 
inertia of the surrounding air. This 
has given rise to a popular error that 
nitroglycerine and other high explo¬ 
sives act downward. As a matter of 
fact they act with equal force in all 
directions. 

In small quantities, dynamite will 
burn quietly, but with large quanti¬ 
ties the heat thus generated will bring 
the entire mass to the explosion tem¬ 
perature before it has burned away. It 
freezes at temperatures from 42° to 
45° F., which often necessitates thaw¬ 
ing it before it can be used. Dyna¬ 
mite should not be thawed by direct 
heat from a fire or a stove. There is 
also more or less peril of producing 
leakiness and starting decomposition 
by thawing it in the sun. There is 
peculiar peril from thawing it in the 
sun when the rays are turned through 
a window, as the imperfections in the 
glass are apt to focus the heat at a 
common point. 

There are only two safe ways to 
thaw dynamite, viz: In a room heated 
by steam pipes, in which case the explo¬ 
sive must never be laid on the pipes, 
and in a vessel surrounded by warm 
water. The proper temperature of the 
water is 125° F., which is the approxi¬ 
mate temperature at which the bare 
hand can just be held without pain. 
The water should be heated separately 


and poured into the water space in the 
thawer, and the thawer should not be 
heated near a stove or other source of 
heat. 

Many accidents occur from the use 
of dynamite, the usual cause being 
carelessness. Among these causes are 
the following: Quarrymen carrying 
cartridges and detonators in the same 
hand; forcing cartridge into hole with 
iron bar; striking portions of unex¬ 
ploded cartridge while clearing away 
debris after the blast; deepening a hole 
which had been fired and had not done 
its work; investigating misfires when 
fuse failed; testing a hole with an iron 
bar after the blast to see if any of the 
charge remained. 

Besides ordinary blasting operations 
there are many other purposes for 
which dynamite has been successfully 
used. It is often used for blasting- 
ice to make way for ships or other 
objects and is used quite extensively 
for removing stumps or trees. Dyna¬ 
mite is also useful for breaking up 
cannon, condemned machinery and 
large castings to be remelted, and in 
the hands of an expert can be used 
for these purposes without any danger. 
It is occasionally exploded under water 
for recovering dead bodies which have 
sunk to the bottom, and has been un¬ 
lawfully used in the same manner for 
killing fish. 



NEW SUBMARINE “ OCTOPUS ” the Largest in the U. S. Navy, on Trial Test—What Appear to be 

Platforms Are Hydroplanes to Prevent “Plunging.” 














244 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


THE AUTOCYCLE 


A new motor vehicle with four 
wheels but driven on the plan of a 
motorcycle has made its appearance. 



Speed, 40 Miles 

This machine weighs 380 lb., has a 
6-hp. motor, is said to develop a speed 
of 40 miles an hour, and capable of 
turning in a radius of 7 ft. The seat 
will accommodate two passengers. 
Most of the weight is carried on the 
forward and rear wheels, which are 
28-in. diameter. The side wheels, 24 
in., are balance wheels. The front and 
side wheels are connected by steering 
gear and all turn in unison. It is 
claimed this machine will safely turn 
in a radius of 30 ft. at a speed of 20 

miles an hour. 

\ 


ENGINEERING EVENTS IN 
ALASKA 


By Chas. W. Tennant, Dawson, Y. T. 


Mining with steam dredges last sum¬ 
mer was so successful that 10 addi¬ 
tional machines will be added this 
season. The ground is found to be 
less frozen than formerly supposed and 
in many places the frost does not ex¬ 
ceed 10 ft. in depth, which is thawed 
by steam points taking steam from the 
dredge. Water powers are to be util¬ 
ized in summer; one large turbine 
plant is already installed which will 
have a transmission .line 35 miles long. 
Fuel is very high, which makes steam 
power expensive. 

A leading greenhouse man of Daw¬ 
son has installed an acetylene plant to 


furnish light for growing vegetables 
and flowers during the dark season. 

Capt. J. J. Healy has arrived with 
his men and will soon begin the survey 
for the Trans-Alaskan-Siberian rail¬ 
way. Local engineers consider the 
project of tunneling Behring straits a 
feasible one. The railroad now run¬ 
ning into Dawson has been operating 
all winter and will be extended 75 or 
100 miles this summer. 

A large skating rink occupies one of 
our largest buildings: no trouble to 

freeze natural ice day or night. 

-» - ♦ ' ♦ - 

BUCKING SNOW IN SCOTLAND 


During the past winter there have 
been unusually heavy snows in Scot¬ 
land. The illustration shows a train 
which was stuck for 24 hours in a 
10-ft. drift. The two engines sent to 
its relief were also stalled, and three 
more locomotives with plows were sent 
to release the other two, which were 
stalled in 15 ft. of snow. The line 
was finally opened by a shovel gang 
of 150 men, who dug through 600 ft. 
of drifts. 



Unusual fn Scotland 












ENCYCLOPEDIA 


245 


CONQUEST OF RIVER AND SEA 


Thrilling Account of the Building of the Great Dam to Check the Colorado River 


By Edgar L. Larkin, Director Mt. Lowe Observatory, Echo Mt., Cal. 


[This intensely interesting account of one of the most daring engineering feats ever undertaken is 
reprinted here from the copyrighted article in the Open Court for January by permission of its publishers. 
About the time the article appeared the river again broke its barriers. President Roosevelt has asked 
Congress for $2,000,000 to check the flood which threatens to submerge 12,000 homes, 1,500,000 acres and 
destroy $700,000,000 of property.—Editor’s Note.] 

“'Water lias stopped pouring into the Imperial Valley/ 7 said the telephone 
in a little hut of poles, thatched with willows on the brink of the subdued river. 
And the 12,000 people below heard all about it in an incredibly short 
time. Almost two years of brooding anxiety had been their fate, but suspense 
and care turned to joy in the space of one-fifth of a second when the news came. 
One of the most remarkable engineering problems of this or any other age 
had been solved. Here is the problem: A stream of water saturated with silt, 
whose width was 3,000 ft., had to be cut off. The depth of the water was from 
0 to 12 ft., with a velocity of flow of 12 ft. per second. But the bottom, banks 
and adjacent lands for square miles round about are composed of pure silt. 
This substance is ground as fine as flour, and dissolves almost instantly when 
water touches it. The silt is of great but unknown depth, certainly not less than 
2,000 ft., possibly 5,000. It came from Colorado and Utah and was ground in 
that great mill—the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, during hundreds of millions 
of years. Piles driven in it to hold up a railroad could not be depended upon 
for a day. The stream was growing wider and deeper minute by minute, and 
costly fields of grain, grass and fruit were being hurried away to the Salton Sea. 
Annual floods in the Colorado were sure to come and make the break miles in 
width, forever beyond hope of filling. 

Epes Randolph, H. T. Cory, E. Corillo and Thomas J. Hinds stood on the 
bank of silt and wondered how the devastating floods could be conquered. 

“Central, please. 77 “Hello. 77 “Give me the Southern Pacific, Los Angeles,” 
said Mr. Randolph, speaking into the receiver of the telephone in the now 
historic hut. 

History may never record the words spoken to and fro, but here is what 
happened right away: Two grand divisions of the Southern Pacific Railroad 
instantly went out of the goods-carrying business. Every car filled with any 
kind of freight was unloaded at once, and no more were received for shipment. 
Telegraphs and telephones everywhere began to speak. Now let us see what 
other events at once took place. 

Thousands of men seized bars and picks, and with steam-drills and great 
cranes attacked granite mountains in every stone quarry within 350 miles. 
Dynamite and giant powder thundered at the rocks by night and by day. Every 
quarry was rushed with cars. Goods-cars, coal-cars, flat-cars, lumber-cars, steel- 
cars, cars, no end of cars, filled every siding. The entire southwest was stripped 
of cars. Passenger traffic often gave way to monster trains of stone-cars. When 
the battle with the flood was at its height, stone-laden cars were attached to 
express trains. Only mail trains had full right of way. Before this a spur 
railway from the main line had been laid to the brink of the flood. Before the 
thousands of cars from the quarries arrived new sidetracks were put down every¬ 
where on the silt beds on which to store cars for the approaching conflict. 

Excitement grew, and so did the width of the river. And then 2,200 cords 





246 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


of tall, slender willows were eut and piled high on the bank where the end oi 
the enormous dam was to begin. A large flat-boat or barge was anchored by the 
shore close to the willow heap. A straight row of piles was driven across the 
stream and f-in. braided wire steel cables were attached to them. These held 
the barge from going down stream. Twelve “dead-men/’ great logs, were buried 
in the silt banks. Twelve colossal spools of cable were placed on the far side 
of the flat-boat. Skids, or inclined planes, smooth on top, were placed between 
the spools and edge of the boat near the shore. The ends of the cables were 
anchored to the “dead-men.” Many cords of willows were placed on the boat. 

Then hundreds of men made fascines—bundles of willows 20 in. in diameter 
and 90 ft. long, bound with wire. Twelve cables nearly 8 ft. apart were twisted 
around the bundles in double loops. The fascines were the woof and the cables 
the warp of a leafy carpet 90 ft. wide and 3,000 long. When a strip had 
been woven of suitable length, a steamer pulled the barge into the river. The 
spools revolved, the cables unwound, the beautiful Brussels carpet slid down the 
skids, dropped into the water and sank to the bottom, anchored by cables to 
the row of piles up-stream. A pile driver followed and put down the carpet- 
tacks—piles from 40 to 60 ft. in length—through the willows and tacked this 
Axminster to the soft floor of silt. And then silt began immediately to settle 
in between the twigs and leaves. Then two rows of piles were set across the 
river; heavy timbers were laid on the tops, then the ties and rails of a railroad 
of great strength were placed on this massive foundation, quite necessary, as will 
be seen later. 

Before any of these preparations had been made, a bypass 50 ft. wide had 
been cut around the place where the north end of the dam was to start. A 
massive head-gate was placed in this pass at a cost of $55,000. The purpose 
of this cut was to carry part of the water from the front to the rear of the dam 
while building, and relieve pressure as the dam rose higher and higher. The 
gate was to have been kept open until the big dam was completed, and then 
closed. This and the dam w^ould cause the water to rise and pour into its 
original bed and go smiling on its way to the Gulf of California. 

When the sidetracks w r ere filled with thousands of cars of rock, activitv 
began. First, a long train moved from the north side of the river across to the 
south. This was occupied by hundreds of men armed with steel bars and pikes. 
The huge stones were pried off the cars, when they fell with crash, rattle and 
roar into the river and settled on the carpet. A train on the north end of the 
railroad was emptied at the same time; and then more trains, and still more. 
On they came without cessation, day or night. Thus the dam advancing from 
both ends kept narrowing the space between the approaching bulwarks of 
massive stones. When this space contracted the speed of the water began to 
increase. With more contraction, the river above the dam commenced to rise 
slowly, and then a little faster. 

The water got its shoulder under the Rockwood gate and away it went with 
rush and roar. Consternation and dismay filled every mind—except those of the 
four engineers. Gloom spread throughout the Imperial Valley. It is not known 
what thoughts raced through the minds of the four; but the 1,050 workmen could 
not detect one trace of fear. Instantly every man left the great dam and 
attacked this unlooked-for danger-problem. For unless the bypass were closed 
immediately the silt banks would vanish and the two cuts would join into a 
break a mile or more wide and forever seal the doom of Valley Imperial. 

Sleep disappeared, piles were driven, and a railroad was thrown across the 
bypass in haste. And then rocks rained. Trainload after trainload went out 
of sight in the boiling flood. And trainloads of gravel, clay and sand. Finally, 
the heap appeared above the water; and then more trains emptied on the crest 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


247 


to bring it up to level with the banks. The floods in the deep cut were thus 
conquered, and then they backed around in front. 

The diverted Colorado River that had been displaying its rage at the dam 
in low, sullen, but ominous tones, now began to roar. As the ends of the dam 
drew nearer, the roaring grew louder. The water surged, boiled and seethed in 
anger. Its speed increased with every trainload of rock hurled into its face. 
Water weighs 62 lb. to the cubic foot, and when in rapid motion its momentum 
becomes one of the most formidable powers in nature. When the gap grew 
narrower, not only did the velocity of the flood greatly accelerate, but the river 
began to rise, and pressure on the dam became enormous. 

At sunset November 3, the time for fear, wavering and faltering came. No 
hope of help from the bypass; all the waters that went through that now had to 
be dealt with in the center of the great dam. The destruction of the gate 
changed every plan. Suppose one to be engaged in building a house by plans 



Piling for Railroad Bridge—Velocity of Water 12 Ft. Per Second. Photo by Lubken 

Items of the Dam:—Length. 3,000 ft.; width at bottom, 250 to 300 ft.; height when finished, 44 ft.; 
cords of willows used, 2,200; piles 40 to 60 ft. in length, 1,100; feet of railway trestle built, 3,800; miles 
of %-in. steel cable, 40; tons of rock in dam, 70,000; cubic yards of earth by cars, 200,000; cubic yards 
of earth by horses and mules, 300,000; locomotives employed. 8; men employed: Caucasians, 600, Indians, 
450; cost of dam, $1,250,000; time in building actual dam, S6 days; acres of rich land Involved, 1,500,000; 
miles of canal jeopardized, 300. 

made by an architect, and that when half finished something should suddenly 
occur to prohibit the use of the specifications, but circumstances were such that 
the house must be built in haste or a vast sum of money would be lost. The 
chances are that the scheme would fail and the loss ensue. The Assyrians and 
Babylonians in their engineering along the Tigris and Euphrates, and the Egyp¬ 
tians with the Nile, had ample time. But there was not a minute to waste on the 

Colorado. 

Here is the case: 1,500,000 acres of land in the Imperial Valley, pronounced 
by United States government experts to be as rich as that in the delta of the Nile, 
were in danger of reverting back to a desert waste, forever deprived of water. 
The homes of 12,000 people, square miles of rich grains, grasses and fruits, six 
little cities, hundreds of miles of railway track, and thousands of domestic 
animals, these and more, were on the verge of destruction. For already the 
bottom of the diverted river was lower than its primeval bed by 10 feet, and 
still cutting lower. The fact stared them in their faces that the costly system 












248 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


of canals would soon be destroyed; and that the awful desert conditions would 
assume dominion; and that every human being and animal must leave the 
beautiful vale, never to return. 

Rays from the falling sun just before they were cut off by the vast granite 
rim of the Salton Sink fell on four faces and brought out lines of determination 
set and fixed as though cut in flint and adamant. These were the engineers 
“cumbered with a load of care.” For the eyes of every hydraulic engineer were 
watching from afar every move to see which would come out victor, man or 
river. And the sun’s fainting light fell on the faces of 600 men of the Caucasian 
race and 450 Indians—all selected men, trained like soldiers for this dangerous 
war: Americans, Spaniards, Mexicans, Frenchmen and Germans, together with 
Cocopahs, Mariposas, Pimas, Diguones, Yumas and Mojaves, who formed the 
largest number of American Indians ever at work in one body. 

When darkness fell the electric lights flashed upon the weird and entirely 
unique scene. The river was rising and the impetuous flood roared louder than 
before. The'terrific speed of the pent-up water was fearful to look upon even, 
to say nothing of man’s audacity in attempting to stop its wild career. No 
shadow of fear, discomfiture or dismay appeared on the bronzed features of the 
engineers. For, if there had, it is probable that a panic would have ensued at 
once. It was just before a real battle, fraught with danger. These men had to 
go out over the awful flood 1,500 ft. from either shore. Who could say but that 
the dam might go when the water came up to the carwheels and sink every train 
on the tracks? Burning oil under the locomotive boilers roared hot words 
of defiance to the floods beneath; and the water hurled back derision and scorn 
to the roar of fire and hiss of steam, to exploding safety valves, and exhausts 
of monster engines and the hideous grinding of a thousand carwheels on granite 
grit. No such combine of noises was ever known on earth. “Go’” was a word of 
command. Two entire trainloads of rock hailed into the jaws of the torrent. The 
floods howled in rage and rose a. little higher. The empties moved to shore, and 
two more long trains came over the gap and hurled their loads into the teeth 
of the dragon below. Pelee was rivaled in the art of stone-throwing and Vesuvius, 
for a new Gettysburg was raging. Then long trains of enormous weight, of cars 
called “battleships,” loaded with hundreds of tons of gravel, rolled over the 
tempest of water. These cars are made of steel, and their sides are suspended 
on hinges. At the word of command both sides of both trains flared out and a 
rain of gravel fell, the like of which was never seen. These small stones filled 
the interstices between the large. This caused the river to rise faster and the 
awful current to increase its fury. And pressure grew apace. At midnight a 
wonderful word of command was heard—“Faster!" 

More oil went into the fires; steam could do no more. Pikes and bars 
of steel were grasped with renewed energy by many tribes and kindreds of men. 
Human hands could not move faster. “We must have large rocks now,” was the 
order at 1 a. m. For rocks now began to be deflected out of a vertical line and 
go down-stream somewhat. “Bring the 5-ton rocks.” One of these, weighing 
5-J tons, was watched when it dropped. The water clutched the mass when it 
rolled and tumbled over similar rocks down the side of the dam 60 ft. It is 
still there—a witness to the momentum of running water. “More rocks !” was the 
incessant crv. 

Behold! there was light in the east. It was dawn; the progress of time 
had not been noticed. More trainloads of heavy rock brought the crest of the 
dam up to the tracks. Then train after train of “battleships” expanded and 
thundered down gravel. As the sun rose, so did the river, and faster if possible 
came the rock and gravel. Here is the record of the battle when at its height: 



ENCYCLOPEDIA 


249 


One car of stone was thrown in during each interval of 4§ minutes! This 
broke the world’s record. The throats of Aetna and Cotapaxi may have done 
better at times. 

It was exact noon of Sunday, November 4th. 

“Oh, look! The river is not rising,” shouted some one. “The water is 
stationary,” said another. And “it is beginning to fall,” another. And then a 
triumphant shout, and a shout of victory, was heard in the wilderness. 

£)£)/!) 



WIRELESS TELEPHONY IN USE 


Wireless telephony is an accom¬ 
plished fact and now it only remains 
for its inventors to perfect their ap- 


Detroit Inventor Demonstrates Practicability—May 
Be Nucleus of Wonderful System 


Prof. Clark and Wireless Telephone Instruments 


paratus and adapt it to the commercial 
needs of the dav. The world is no 
longer incredulous. The rapid ad¬ 
vancement made in the use of wireless 
telegraphy has swept away the doubts 
of even the most conservative and busi¬ 
ness men are looking forward to the 
time when unrestricted verbal commun¬ 
ication between New York and Lon¬ 
don, or Chicago and Berlin, may save 
them a trip across the ocean. 

Thomas E. Clark, of Detroit, has 
produced a wireless telephone system 
which seems to be the nucleus of the 
world-connecting system yet to come. 
Instead of the air, as in wireless teleg¬ 
raphy, he uses the earth as his medium 
of transmission, success depending, 


it is said, upon sustained vibrations. 

As yet Mr. Clark has tried his in¬ 
strument with only two dry cell bat¬ 
teries and with apparatus designed for 
short distances. These experiments, 
however, have been attended with 
promising success. The sound was car¬ 
ried without loss in volume, change of 
pitch, or the disagreeable sonorous de¬ 
fects incident to the metallic circuit 
’phones. 

Despite this wonderful achievement, 
the difficulties yet to be met are great. 
For instance, in order for one patron 
to call up another in a distant city, 
where hundreds of telephones were in 
use would necessitate that the sending 
instrument or transmitter be given the 

















250 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


right degree of power to overcome both 
the distance and the varying accidental 
conditions which affect transmission, 
and be attuned to set up vibrations in 
the particular ’phone desired, calling 
the attention of the owner and enab¬ 
ling him to hold converse over the 
wireless line. The field of operation, 
however, cannot be limited and may 
eventually include any two points on 

the earth's surface. 

--— 

35-FT. CABIN CRUISER 


The plans shown are those of a very 
commodious little cruiser described in 
The Eudder. This boat is 36 ft. over 
all, 33 ft. on the water 
line, and 9 ft. 3 in. 
breadth. Three water¬ 
tight bulkheads will be 
fitted, making the boat 
practically unsinkable. 

In general appearance 
the boat resembles the 
larger type of motor 
yacht. Every inch of 
space has been put to 
practical use. The deck 
is raised forward, and 
the deck house is divided 
by a bridge coming over 
the forward end of the 
double stateroom. The 
motor is located forward 
in what is properly the 
forecastle, which also in¬ 
cludes berths and toilet 
accommodations for the crew. Next 
aft of this and separated by water¬ 
tight bulkhead is the owner’s stateroom 
with berths on either side, and from 
this again is a passage having the gal¬ 
ley on the port side and owner’s toilet 
room on the starboard side. The main 
saloon is at the after end of the cabin 
and has Pullman berths folding up in 
the joiner work on either side, and 
dining table in the center. From the 
main saloon one enters the self-bailing 
cockpit, in which is the fuel tank, w r ith 
a capacity of 200 gal. The bridge 
deck and cockpit are covered by awn¬ 
ings, and a 10-ft. dinghy is carried on 


davits on the port side. A signal mast 
and boarding ladders are fitted. 

The motor is a 22-hp. gasoline en¬ 
gine. Equipment includes a generator, 
storage batteries, with incandescents 

and searchlight. 

-- 

QUEER VENTILATORS IN INDIAN 

CARS 


The passenger coaches on the rail¬ 
ways of India are using a peculiar 
ventilator to fan their patrons. Four 
wind scoops are placed on top the car, 
attached to a vertical shaft extending 
down into the car with two blades. 
When the car is in motion the scoops 


above and the blades below revolve, 

and also by means of gearing wind 
up springs which run the blades while 
the train is standing still. The Kail- 
road Gazette, Calcutta, says the pas¬ 
sengers in a compartment can regulate 
the operation of the fans. 

-»-•» ♦- 

An autobus line will operate between 
Tokyo and Kanagawa, Japan, a dis¬ 
tance of 9 miles. Fare will be 2 sen 
(1 cent) per mile. 

-»-♦ ♦- 

Eight bills for charters for railways 
to Hudson Bay are pending in the 
Dominion parliament. 



Complete Little Cruiser 













































































































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


251 



Copyright Waldon Fawcett 


The above illustrations show the latest invention in life-saving projectiles. Some of the 
United States Life-Saving Stations have already been equipped and the apparatus is being 
considered by chiefs of fire departments in several large cities. The outfit is easy to carry 
and operate, and with a littie practice the anchor can be fired through a window several 
stories up, or thrown over the top of the building. The flukes are certain to catch. 


SAFETY TROLLEY FOR RAILROAD 
CROSSINGS 


Every little while some trolley car 
becomes stalled while crossing the 
tracks of a steam road, and there are 
numerous cases on record where an 
express train has wrecked the street 
car because the conductor was unable 
to replace the trolley wheel on the wire 
in time to get out of the way. The 
Electric Traction Weekly describes a 
recent invention which is expected to 
prevent future accidents of this kind. 
A metal network in the shape of an 
inverted trough is stretched across the 
steam tracks close above the trolley 
wire. This wire netting is charged 
with the same current as the trolley 



wire and would enable the motor car 
to continue its passage even when the 
trolley wheel had jumped the wire. 
-»- ♦ ♦-- 

LOCOMOTIVE FIRE KINDLER 


To save time and kindling in start¬ 
ing a fire in a locomotive, the device 
illustrated has been adopted on some 



Makes a Quick Fire 

roads. Crude oil is used in large 
burners with a mixture of air, the nec¬ 
essary pressure being supplied by com¬ 
pressed air carried in a tank on wheels. 
-♦—•—♦- 

Electric power from the Canadian 
side of Niagara Falls is now propelling 
the street cars of Toronto, 


To Save Wrecks 





















252 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


PRACTICAL FLASH-LIGHT 
HOLDER 


The staff photographer of one of 
Chicago’s leading dailies, whose origi¬ 
nal work in newspaper photography 



Patent Applied tor 

Photographed by Its Own Flash 

has attracted national attention, has in¬ 
vented the first really practical flash¬ 
light holder. In these days newspaper 
photographers have to work quickly; 
the managing editor cannot wait for 
the sun to shine, and nearly all interior 
views are now flashed. In working out 
of doors great difficulty is experienced 
in preventing the powder from blowing 
away; in making it flash at the exact 
moment, and in directing the light 
where most needed. Pictures of al¬ 
most priceless value are lost daily 
through failure arising from one of 
these causes. 

The device illustrated insures a good 
strong negative regardless of sun, 
wind or weather. 

The powder is inclosed in thin flat 
bags about 4 by 5 in. which can be 
attached to the shield in an instant. 
The shield acts as a reflector and pro¬ 
tects the operator from injury, and 
can be pointed up, down, or sideways, 
like a dark lantern. The explosion is 
caused by pressing a button in the 
handle, which makes a sure spark from 


miniature batteries contained in the 
box below. The switch is thrown on 
when going into action, and the button 
sets off the flash at the moment re¬ 
quired. Any photographer, profes¬ 
sional or amateur, will recognize the 
advantages of the new method. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

KEYLESS CLOCKS FOR TELE¬ 
PHONE SUBSCRIBERS 


“Central” Does All the Winding—Observatory 
Time for Home and Office 


The good old-fashioned clock oper¬ 
ated with weights or springs is being 
crowded out of existence in these elec¬ 
trical days, and is rapidly becoming 
a curiosity. Telephone companies are 
now furnishing their subscribers at a 
small annual rental, self-winding elec¬ 
tric clocks that give absolutely accu¬ 
rate time. The clock or clocks can be 
placed anywhere in the house and are 
connected to the telephone wires by 
means of concealed wires. .The tele¬ 
phone clock never stops, for it never 
runs down, and should it vary a second 
or two in the course of the 24 hours 
it will be correct again within a few 
hours, for once each day all the tele¬ 
phone clocks in the city are synchro¬ 
nized, or set. This setting is done from 
the central office at some hour when 
the telephone is least likely to be in 
use, say 3 :00 o’clock a. m. The setting 
requires only a moment and is accom¬ 
plished by a separate current sent over 
the wires from the master clock. 

The operation of the telephone 
clock is simple and will be readily un¬ 
derstood by the illustration, Fig. 1. 
The winding is done by means of dry 
batteries, which energize the magnet, 
(see cut), and cause it to lift alter¬ 
nately the small round weights, each 
one of which in falling once will oper¬ 
ate the clock 7 minutes. 

The system is absolutely safe and the 
rental of a clock is about the same 
price as people pay for having clocks 
cleaned each year. 









ENCYCLOPEDIA 


253 



“Master” 


Subscribers’ Clocks The Works 

The work of installing the clocks is simple and can be 
done by the repair men of any telephone company, and as 
the clocks are leased to telephone companies, who in turn 
lease them to the subscribers, any telephone company, how¬ 
ever small, can afford to adopt the system, as it yields just 
that much additional revenue without any investment. 


LARGEST SIDE=WHEELER IN THE WORLD 


The largest side-wheel steamer in the 
world, the “City of Cleveland/’ was 
launched at Detroit on January 5th. 
Her dimensions are: Length, 444 ft.; 
beam, 96 ft. 6 in.; and depth, 22 ft. 


There are seven decks with a passenger 
capacity of 5,000 and sleeping accom¬ 
modations for 1,500. In addition, 
freight cargo equivalent to 110 carloads 
can he carried. Electric passenger 













































254 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


elevators connect the upper and lower 
decks. There is a telephone in every 
stateroom which will have connection 
with the city service when in ports. A 
complete wireless system will afford 
land communication when sailing. A 
speed of 25 miles is expected from the 
8,000-hp. engines. 

A unique feature is the bow rudder 
which can be seen in the illustration 
taken just before launching. The 
steamer will cost $1,250,000 and run 
between Detroit and Cleveland the 

coming summer. 

-» - -- ♦- 

SAFETY CAR FOR LINEMEN 


A new safety messenger ear for use 
of linemen is shown herewith. The 



Will Vou Ride? 

car weighs 28 lb. and the occupant can 
push himself along without assistance. 
One of the chief points of inprovement 
is that the workman faces his work in¬ 
stead of being obliged to look up, and 
being securely strapped to the car, he 

has both hands free for work. 

-♦ — » ♦- 

When hanging pressed paper over 
varnished paper, says the Master 
Painter, first cut the varnish with 
strong sal soda water, which will 
remove the glaze so the new paper will 
adhere firmlv. 


SPRING MOTOR AUTO FOR 
CHILDREN 


This juvenile auto, complete with 
pneumatic tires, horn, steering wheel, 
ball bearings and lamps, is now on the 
market for use by children. It weighs 
only 60 lb. and cannot travel faster 



Speed 5 Miles 


than 5 miles an hour. Starting and 
stopping is accomplished with two foot 
pedals. The motive power is a power¬ 
ful spring which is wound up with a 
crank handle and is so geared that a 
child can wind it. 

-♦ • ♦- 

REMOVING RING FROM FINGER 



The old way to remove a tight ring 
from a finger was to file the ring in 

two, using a 
thin, sharp file 
and placing a 
narrow strip of 
metal between 
the ring and 
finger to protect 
the skin. This 
operation, while effective, is necessarily 
slow, and usually by the time such a 
measure is necessary the finger has be¬ 
come badly swollen and extremely 
painful. 

The latest addition to a jeweler’s kit 
of tools is a ring sawing machine, 
which is quick and painless. Its opera¬ 
tion will be readily understood from 
the illustration. 



















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


255 


9 



The largest and most powerful 
motorcycle ever built has recently been 
completed and entered the contest in 
the 1907 Beach races. It is an 8- 


MOTORCYCLE MADE FASTEST 

TIME ON RECORD 

\ 


Courtesy C. H. Curtiss Mfg, Co. 


40-Hp. Motorcycle Which Made a Mile in 26 2=5 Seconds 


cylinder machine of 40 hp. The record 
for the 10-mile race is already held by 
the same builders who won the 10-mile 
race three years ago at Ormond Beach 
with a double cylinder machine in 
8 :54 2-5. Great expectations are placed 
on the performance of the new ma¬ 
chine, which is driven direct with a 
one to one gear, with 26-in. rear wheel. 
The wheel base is 65 in. The entire 
machine weighs 300 lb. and is faster 
than any other mechanical motive 
power ever built by man. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

PEARY READY FOR A RUSH 
ORDER 


Commander Robert E. Peary says 
that if he receives a rush order he will 
be ready to undertake another polar 
expedition in the summer of 1908. He 
claims that his last trip simplified 
reaching the pole 50 per cent, and still 
believes that sledging is the only prac¬ 
ticable means of transportation thither. 
Speaking of the far north, he said: 

“In the Arctic 100 days is a century, 
because the sun shines through one 


long day from March to October. 
Think of night constantly from October 
to March. The imagination is stag¬ 
gered ! There is no time at the north 
pole. A phenomenon to be remembered 
about the pole is that there is no north, 
no east, no west. You can only go one 
way, and that is south. In the Arctic 
there are ice cakes as high as the 
capitol at Washington.” 

-»--» ♦- 

DIAMOND DIES FOR DRAWING 

WIRE 


In the various wire factories of this 
country several hundred thousand dol¬ 
lars’ worth of diamonds are used as 
dies for drawing fine wire to sizes less 
than 0.025 in. in diameter. The dia¬ 
monds weigh four to five carats each, 
are worth from $15 to $20 a carat and 
are uncut except as to the die. 

The hardest steel dies cannot be 
used for this purpose as the wear 
enlarges them so that the wire is not of 
sufficiently uniform diameter. With 
diamond dies platinum can be drawn to 
a diameter of five-thousandths of an 














256 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


inch and in one pound of copper there 
are six miles of wire three one-thou¬ 
sandths inch in diameter. 

-♦- 

MECHANICAL IMPROVEMENT 

FOR HOTEL DINING ROOMS 


When a_ man takes his seat in the 
dining room of a hotel and has given 
the order for his meal, he usually waits 
patiently until he is served—unless he 
looks across the table and notices that 
the guest who came in some time later 
than he is served first. Then he gets 
mad. 

Sometimes delays are unavoidable, 
but the new mechanical system of 



“Cook Presses Electric Button When Order is 
Ready” 


checking described in the Hotel World 
is expected to largely correct the trou¬ 
ble, and incidentally give prompter 
service with one-fourth less waiters. 
This is how it is done: 

When the order—which is written 
on an order blank—reaches the kitchen 
the checker numbers it with the num¬ 
ber of the waiter and by means of a 
time stamp prints the hour and minute 
it was received. Then it is passed along 
to the cooks. With the record of the 
time the order is received staring him 
in the face, even the most procrastinat¬ 
ing cook sees no chance to lay the 
blame of delay on some one else. So 
he gets busy. 


In the meantime the waiter has re¬ 
turned to his station in the dining room 
to wait upon the guests, and instead of 
making several fruitless trips to the 
cook’s domain he does not start for the 
kitchen until he is called. This is a 
very simple but effective system. When 
the order is ready to leave the kitchen 
the cook presses an electric white but¬ 
ton bearing the number of the waiter 
who brought the order and instantly in 
the dining room the same number is 
lighted in an annunciator. When No. 
5 sees his number flash he knows there 
is something ready for him and he 
goes and brings it in. When he re¬ 
ceives his eatables his number is ex¬ 
tinguished by pressing a black button. 

The apparatus is so simple any local 
electrician can install the device which 
should be worth many times its cost 
in any hotel, large or small. 

-♦- 

THE NEW HELION FILAMENT 
LAMP 


After having worked at the problem 
for several years, Prof. H. C. Parker, 
of the Physics Department at Columbia 
University, New York City, and W. A. 
Clark, an electrical engineer, have at 
last succeeded in perfecting a substance 
that will take the place of carbon in 
the incandescent lamp. They have 
named it “helion,” and hope by means 
of it to reduce the cost of electric 
lighting to a third of what it now 
is. It is composed to a large extent of 
silicon; the other substances which go 
to make it up have not yet been made 
public. An experiment was tried on 
January 13th: A current was'turned 
into two bulbs attached to the same 
wire. One of these bulbs was the regu¬ 
lar 16 candlepower carbon filament 
variety, .the other the same sized bulb 
but equipped with the helion filament. 
A slight current was turned on, the 
carbon filament lamp gave only a small 
dull red glow, while the other gave a 
bright glow sufficient to read by. The 
current was increased to 55 watts, the 
old lamp gradually brightened until it 


*> 










ENCYCLOPEDIA 


equalled 16 candlepower. At 38 watts 
the heiion lamp was equivalent to 40 
candlepower. Mr. Clark said that if 
the power were increased the carbon 
filament would break, but the other 
lamp would stand a great deal of over¬ 
loading. Out of the few thus far tried 
eight lamps have lasted from 485 to 
1,270 hours. 

Prof. Parker said: “The lamp that 
ran 1,270 hours showed a rather inter¬ 
esting performance. It was started at 
37 watts and 37 candlepower. At the 
end of 200 hours it began to show an 
increase in candlepower, which increase 
continued until the candlepower 
reached 40 at 400 hours, the wattage 
remaining practically constant at 37. 
At 400 hours the candlepower began 
to decline and again crossed the 37 
mark at 500 hours. When the last 
reading was taken at 1,230 hours the 
illumination had dropped to about 35.5 
candlepower and the consumption to 
about 26.5 watts. We have been able 

& 


to make filaments as low as 30 candle- 
power. We want them to get down 
to 20.” 

If this new lamp were to be manu¬ 
factured right now, it would cost ten 
cents more than the carbon filament 
lamp, but it is hoped to reduce this 
cost. But this lamp will last twice as 
long as the old one, besides requiring a 
great deal less current. 

About a year ago Dr. Siemann, a 
German scientist, announced that he 
had made a filament of tantalum. It 
consumed only 1.9 watts per candle- 
power and was called “the most start¬ 
ling advance in electric lighting inven¬ 
tion since the pioneer work of Edison.” 

Dr. Kusel, another German, said 
that he had found tungsten—a rare 
metal—to be the perfect filament. It 
consumed 1.2 watts per candlepower. 
Prof. Parker and Mr. Clark sav that 
1 watt per candle has been reached in 
heiion—not a metal—and that it can 
be made in great quantities. 

& 



WHEN MOTOR CAR AND LOCOMOTIVE MEET 


While too many of them have suf¬ 
fered the fate, what a motor car that 
has been struck by a railway train 
looks like is a sight seen by compara¬ 
tively few eyes. The accompanying 
picture will therefore satisfy some lit¬ 
tle curiosity. It portrays a four- 
cylinder car that has been hit by a 
60-miles an hour express train. A 
notable feature of this particular wreck 


is that when it was first received at the 
factory for repairs the motor was 
tested and found to work almost per¬ 
fectly despite the terrific impact to 

which it had been subjected. 

-» - » ■ ♦—- 

Canada is trying to pass a bill 
imposing an export duty on electrical 
power generated in the Dominion and 
sold in the United States. 


% 


t 












258 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



RAISING A 12,000=TON STEAMER 


How Two Young Engineers Succeeded After Experts Failed 


It was a damp, foggy night on No¬ 
vember 1, 1905, when the Royal mail 
steamer “Bavarian,” bound for Quebec, 
struck on Wye Rock in the St. Law¬ 
rence river, 38 miles from her port. 
The great 12,000-ton ship was alone 
worth one million dollars, and the next 
day divers went down and reported the 
bottom of the hull torn out in great 
pieces and the wreck securely im¬ 
paled on the sharp rocks 

One after another of the wrecking 
companies tackled the job, but all the 
various methods which had proved suc¬ 
cessful in other wrecks utterly failed 
with the “Bavarian.” Finally the in¬ 
surance companies, in desperation, be¬ 
gan a search for men with new and 
untried ideas. 

The announcement fell into the 
hands of Robert 0. King and his 
friend, W. W. Wortherspoon, two young 
American engineers only recently grad¬ 
uated from technical schools. One of 
them then had a position on one of 
the tunnels under East river; he was 
also an expert diver. The two formu¬ 
lated a plan for expelling the water 
from the wreck by means of compressed 
air, in a manner similar to that em¬ 
ployed in forcing water out of a cais¬ 
son. The old-timers laughed at the 
scheme, but the young men were given 
permission to try. All the ship’s com¬ 
partments were made as air-tight as 
possible, the hatches were closed, 
sealed and fastened; and air locks were 
placed on the compartments which were 
full of water. 


When all the preliminary work was 
done, several batteries of big air com¬ 
pressors were brought, anchored over 
the wreck and connected by flexible 
piping to the interior of the hull. 

As the air was sent down into the 
hull the water was gradually forced 
out and on November 16, 1906, the 
wreck suddenly shook itself free from 
the rocky jaws which held it, and be¬ 
gan to rise. As it came up through 
60 ft. of water it rose faster and faster 
and then appeared above the surface 
covered with the slime of the river bot¬ 
tom. Tugs gathered around, made 
fast, and the triumphant procession 
steamed into Quebec with whistles 
blowing and flags flying. 

The operations had cost only $30,000 
and the salvage reward is one-half her 
value, or $500,000. 

Brains and education had won. 

-♦- • ♦- 

ELECTRIC FENCE TO GUARD 
GOLD MINE 


A barbed wire fence heavily charged 
with electricity will surround and guard 
a gold mine at Reno, Nev., hereafter. 
Recent thefts of ore led to the erection 
of the fence and anyone attempting to 
climb it will meet with instant death. 
--♦- 

Vienna policemen, it is said, are 
provided with pocket telephones which 
they can connect in a second to the 
wire in special call boxes placed in all 
important streets. 








































































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


259 


LARGE STEAM TURBINE 



The accompanying illustrations show a 10-ft. turbine in 
course of construction and a 27-in. turbine complete. The 
large exhaust shell, Fig. 1, shows the many nozzles through 
which the steam passes and gives some idea of the enormous 
amount of steam that can be converted into mechanical 


Fig. 1—Exhaust Shell Fig. 2—27-In. Turbine Complete Fig. 3—Rotor of 10=Ft. Turbine 


energy in a comparatively small space. 

In Fig. 3 is shown one of the 10-ft. 
rotors and the method of balancing. 
It is of extreme importance that the 
rotors be perfectly balanced, as the 
rapid revolutions when running would 
cause troublesome vibrations if one side 
were even a very little heavier than the 
other. The balancing is done by sup¬ 


porting each end of the rotor axle on 
a steel-rail bearing as shown. The 
least difference in weight will then be 
shown by the rotation of the rotor. 

The problem of setting the numerous 
blades is a very difficult one, as the 
clearances are so small that the slight¬ 
est inaccuracy will prevent the success¬ 
ful operation of the turbine. The 



Fig. 4—Testing a 10=Ft. Turbine 


\ 


















260 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


loosening and detachment of a single 
blade is liable to wreck the entire tur¬ 
bine, as one detached blade in the shell 
would probably catch in the nozzles and 
tear out several other blades which 


would then work havoc with the re¬ 
maining blades and nozzles. 

The 27-in. turbine shown in Fig. 2 
has the top shell removed to show the 
rotors. 


-» ♦ ♦- 

A CENTURY’S PROGRESS IN THE ENGLISH NAVY 



Will the Coming Century Do As Well? 


It is exactly 100 years from the old 
“Victory”—considered by Nelson the 
most efficient three-decker, and on that 
account chosen as his flagship before 
Trafalgar—to the reigning king of 
battleships, the “Dreadnaught.” A 
comparison of the two vessels affords a 
forcible illustration of the progress of 
a century in the English navy. 

Quite as interesting as any of the 

“DREADNAUGHT.” 


tons draws only 18 in. more, while she 
has 70 men and 67 guns less than the 
“Victory.” 

The “Dreadnaught’s” extreme range 
is 25 miles, with a penetration of 9 in. 
at 6 miles. The “Victory’s” extreme 
range was only 3 miles, while at a mile 
and a quarter her shot would have 
made only a good sized dent in our 
modern armor. 

“VICTORY.” 

Five years ten months 
£89,000 
3,400 tons 
1,160 lb. 

6 inch 
10^ lb. 

Four Guns a Week 
£57 15s. 

56 cwt. 

850 men 
226 ft. 6 in. 

52 ft. 

25 ft. 

104 

10 knots 


Time Building 

Total Cost 

Displacement 

Total Weight Broadside 

Heaviest Guns 

Weight of Charge 

Time to make Gun 

Cost per Gun 

Average Weight per Gun 

Complement 

Length ... ... 

Breadth 

Mean Load Draught 
Number of Guns 
Speed ••• 


... 16 months 

£1,797,497 ... 

17,900 tons 
6,800 lb. 

12 inch 
265 lb. 

12 to 15 months 
£ 11,000 
... 58 tons 

780 men 
490 ft. 

82 ft. 

26 ft. 6 in. ... 
37 

213*2 knots 


above figures are those comparing the 
number of men and guns, and draft. 
The “Dreadnaught” with her 17,900 


The omission of a decimal point on page 111 of 
January issue made the muzzle velocity of a shot from 
the “Dreadnaught” read "5 miles per second”: it should 
have been .Smiles. 



























































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


261 



HOW PENS ARE MADE 


[Extracted from a lecture by Mr. Hawkes, manufacturing pen expert.] 


Good steel of a uniform grade and 
rich in carbon is the material from 
which pens are made. The steel comes 
in sheets 19 in. wide and 5 ft. long and 
is imported, as American manufactur¬ 
ers have not yet attempted to make the 
higher grades of steel. 

If a sheet of steel is heated red-hot 
and allowed to cool gradually it be¬ 
comes so soft that it can be rolled, bent 
or squeezed into various shapes. If, on 
th£ other hand, it is heated red-hot and 
suddenly chilled it will become so 
brittle that attempts to bend will break 
it and a hammer blow will crush it to 
bits. 

If the steel is heated gradually this 
hardness will be drawn out, and as the 
temperature rises the steel will become 
more and more tough, until at a tem¬ 
perature of about 575 ° it has the resil¬ 
iency of a spring. It can be heated 
again to a red-heat and gradually 
cooled and brought back to its original 
softness, and the operation can be re¬ 
peated over and over again without 
changing the chemical character of the 
metal. 

The sheets of steel are cut into strips 
wide enough to permit of two pens 



The small motor boat for light freight traffic 
on the English seacoast is rapidly taking the 
place of sailing craft. The illustration shows a 
common type of small commercial boat. 


being cut with their points interlap¬ 
ping. The steel is annealed to a light 
cherry red for a number of hours and 
then cooled gradually, when it is soft 
enough to bend easily. The scale is 
then removed by pickling the steel in a 
bath of diluted acid, and the strip is 
ready to be passed through the rolling 
mill. The number of times it must go 
through the mills depends upon how 
thin it is desired to roll it. Each strip is 
tested with a microchronometer gauge, 
and should it be too thick it is again 
put through the mills. If too thin, it 
is laid aside for the production of a 
pen on which a thinner steel can be 
used. The steel then goes to the cut¬ 
ting room, where the pen blanks are 
cut out by machines. On one side of 
each blank there is a little dent, which 
is known as the “bit,” and which is 
used as a guide in passing the metal 
through a number of succeeding opera¬ 
tions. 

The pens are pierced by machinery, 
some requiring but one piercing, others 
two or three, the latter being more 
expensive. From the piercing machine 
the pens go to the muffle room, where 
the blanks are annealed. Fifty or sixty 
gross of them are placed in each iron 
pot and heated and cooled just as was 
the strip steel. The name is then 
stamped on the blanks and the pen is 
ready to be formed. Some pens have 
to be “crushed,” by which process a 
little wing of steel is bent under them. 

If the pen is still soft, it is necessary 
to take it to the muffle room and again 
heat it to a light cherry red and chill it 
suddenly. This process renders the 
pens quite brittle, so much so indeed 
that they can be readily crumbled be¬ 
tween the fingers. Later on this hard¬ 
ness is drawn out by the process already 
outlined. By this time the pen has be¬ 
come coated with an oxide, which is 













262 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


removed by scouring or by a shaking 
process, by which the roughness is 
gradually rubbed off. 

The next operation is grinding, some 
pens being ground twice, others three 
times, in some cases by hand and in 
others by automatic machinery. 

The pen next passes to the slitting 
room. This operation is a very deli¬ 
cate one, as the pen is now hard and 
brittle and the slit must be cut cleanly 
through the hard steel without dam¬ 
aging it in any way. After slitting, 
the pens go to the rounding room, 
where they are made perfectly round 
and smooth, so that no matter at what 
angle the pen is held the paper will be 
in a tangent to its surface, and there 
will be no possibility of sticking or 
scratching. 

Every pen is now examined by an 
expert, so that the faulty pens which 
have accumulated in the various opera¬ 
tions may be thrown out. This is the 
third examination. The pens now go 
back to the room in which the oxide 
was removed, to be polished by the 
shaking process before described. If 
they are to be colored, they are placed 


in a tempering cylinder and heated to 
the desired color. The first heat brings 
them to a light straw color, a dark 
yellow, a brown, a purple and then a 
blue shade being obtained by increasing 
the heat. If the pen is to be left white, 
it is, of course, not reheated. 

In order to preserve the pen and 
prevent it from rusting, a coat of 
lacquer is put on by means of machines. 
If the pen is to be plated with copper, 
bronze, silver or gold, however, it goes 
to the plating room before the lacquer¬ 
ing operation is begun. Plated pens 
are now very popular and they can be 
plated with almost any metal desired. 

The pens are now ready to go to the 
boxing room, where they are “counted” 
by ascertaining the weight. It will be 
found impossible to put a gross of pens 
in the box intended for them unless 
they are laid parallel. In order to do 
this quickly and easily they are put in 
a half cylinder and shaken. This 
quickly places them in a parallel posi¬ 
tion, and by a very quick move of the 
operative they are dumped into the 
boxes, which are then ready to be 
labeled and packed. 


HIGH SPEED MOTOR SLEIGH 



The motor sleigh is making slow progress, but will some day become a very popular 
form of sport. The one illustrated is 14 ft. long with runners 22 in. high. The engine 
drives a spiked wheel by means of a sprocket chain, the wheel being held down by heavy 
spiral springs. Steering is accomplished with the front runners. Very high speed >s 
obtained on smooth Ice. 











RUSSIAN ICE BOAT 


SCALDING WATER USED TO 
KEEP TRACKS OPEN 


In building the new railroad across 
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, engineers 
encountered a difficulty not included in 
previous experience. The new road 
extends from Salina Cruz on the Pa¬ 
cific coast to Coatzacoalcos on the Gulf 
of Mexico. The country traversed is 
marvelously fertile and the tropical 
growth sprang up faster than the con¬ 
struction work proceeded. Boiling 
water was used to check the vegetation 
and a part of the maintenance of the 
line consists in frequently scalding the 
railway. 

- » ♦ ♦-- 

GERMAN MILITARY MOTOR CAR 


The latest armored motor-car built 
for the German armv is illustrated be- 
low. It carries one rapid-fire gun of 
larger size than in any previous car. 
The car was built from plans largely 
designed by the German Emperor him¬ 
self Details of the outfit are kept 
secret. 



Kaiser’s Own Plan 


The latest Russian ice boat is being 
built along lines quite different from 
the usual. American type. The sail is 



“He Rides Stretched at Full Length’’ 


comparatively small, and the operator 
Steers bv means of two rudders, one 
fastened to each float, while he rides 
stretched at full length as seen in the 
illustration. 

- » ♦ ♦- 

COMMERCIAL VALUE OF 

TECHNICAL EDUCATION 


Germany leads the world in the size 
and excellence of its trade schools, and 
it is these institutions which are largely 
responsible for the high standard which 
attaches to the words “Made in Ger¬ 
many.” Canada, which is rapidly 
developing manufactures, has caught 
the spirit of technical instruction and 
the government has now signified its 
intention to co-operate with resident 
manufacturers in establishing trade, 
schools. 


263 


















264 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



Mechanical Development in China-Lofty Scaffold Erected in Repairing Building Destroyed by the 
Boxers—State Official in Automobile-Native Enginemen—Modern Printing Machinery Operated 
by Natives 


Western ideas, customs and methods 
are being adopted in China to an extent 
and at a rate but little realized by the 
rest of the world. Native Chinamen 
are constructing and operating tele¬ 
graph, telephone and railway lines 
equal in results to the best European 
systems. To the land where printing 
was first an art have come the latest 
and fastest American presses, which 
are driven by electricity and worked by 
natives. The automobile has ceased to 
be a curiosity and become a utility. 
The army is being instructed in. the 
most approved tactics of the world 
powers. Each month large numbers 
of students in mechanics, engineering, 
science, and art are returning to their 
own land from all parts of the world 
whither they have been sent to study 
and learn, to become instructors and 
constructors of the New China. 

-»■ ♦ ♦- 

CHIMNEY 506 FEET HIGH 


The highest and largest chimney in 
the world will be built for the smelting 
works at Great Falls, Mont. It will be 
506 ft. high with an inside diameter at 
the top of 50 ft., and outside diameter 
at bottom of 75 ft. The chimney will 


be of brick, cost $200,000 and weigh 
over 16,000 tons, with a capacity of 
4,000,000 cu. ft. of gases per minute. 
The interior will be lined with acid- 
proof brick laid in acid-proof mortar. 
-» ♦ ♦- 

CEMENT CARGO TURNED TO 
STONE! AT SEA 


A strange accident befell the 
“Socoa,” bound from a European port 
with a full cargo of cement for use in 
rebuilding San Francisco. When off 
the Lizard, near the stormy Cornwall 
coast, the “Socoa” struck a sharp point 
of rock, which tore a large hole in the 
hull and penetrated some distance. 
The vessel thus remained fastened as 
if upon a pivot. 

When the salvage crew arrived to 
see about taking the “Socoa” from her 
dangerous position, the men found that 
water had entered the hold causing the 
cement to set and fix itself around the 
ragged rock penetrating the ship’s side. 
The entire cargo has become as hard as 
stone and the ship is anchored to with¬ 
stand the ages. Her rigging and upper 
wooden works were dismantled, but 
the hull remains fast to the rock. 




















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


,265 



SUCCESSFUL WORK OF HOME-MADE DITCHER 


Seventy Rods of Big Trench Made Per Day With 48 Oxen==PIow Turned Up=Side= 

Down and Transported on Its Own Rollers 



Six miles southeast of Greeley, Colo., 
a seepage ditch was made recently by 
methods which smacked of those em¬ 
ployed 50 years ago, but by means of 
which the cost to the owner of the 
ditch was only one-third as great as it 
would have been had he employed a 
modern dredger in making it. 

By the combined strength of 48 head 
of oxen a wooden plow was dragged 
through marshy land making a trench 
3 ft. wide on the bottom, 8 ft. wide at 
the top and two miles in length, into 
which the seepage water was drained 
and carried to the Platte river. 

The oxen traveled on the firmest 
ground in the marsh, which, however, 
was hardly able to support the weight 
of a man. Two big wooden steel cov¬ 
ered staples called a cra~b were driven 
in the swamp and a wire cable, 1 in. in 
diameter, passed around the crab and 
was paid out for several hundred feet. 


The cable then passed over a pulley 
fastened on the front end of the 
“ditcher” or plow and the other end of 
the cable was attached to an evener, to 
which the cattle in pairs were yoked 
with chains. As the four dozen ani¬ 
mals walked, the big plow ripped up 
the sod at a great rate as it was 
dragged up to the crab, which was then 
moved ahead and the operation re¬ 
peated. Two heavy wheels are arranged 
on the top of the crab and when neces¬ 
sary to remove it from place to place 
the crab is turned upside down and 
pulled by oxen to the desired location. 
A man sat on the plow to keep its big 


Ditcher Up=Side-Down Being Drawn on its own Rollers 































ENCYCL0PED1A 


266 



Completed Ditch 


knives clear of debris and the outfit 
dug 70 rods of ditch a day. The pic¬ 
ture of the plow shows it upside down, 
in which position it can be transported 
from place to place on its own rollers. 
-» ♦ ♦- 

HIGH=GRADE STEEL FROM 
SCRAP IRON 


Probably the greatest discovery that 
has been made in the steel industries 
in recent years is the manufacture of 
high-grade tool steel direct from ordi¬ 
nary scrap iron by means of the elec¬ 
tric furnace. In one of the steel works 
in Germany the process has been in 
operation since February, 1906, but 
has until recently been kept a secret. 

While the cost of materials for mak¬ 
ing crucible steel is from $20 to $80 a 
ton, the cost of the old scrap and rub¬ 
bish used for electric steel averages 
only $12 a ton. 

The rubbish is first melted in a tilt¬ 
ing furnace or oven, constructed simi¬ 
larly to those ordinarily used in our 
American smelting works. After being 
thoroughly reduced to a fluid state it 
is poured and conveyed in a retort by 
a traveling crane to the electric oven, 
which has a capacity of from 1^ to 2 
tons. In this oven the necessary quan¬ 
tities of carbon, manganese, chrome, 
silicum, nickel, tungstate, arsenical 
iron, etc., are added, to produce any 
kind or quality of steel desired. The 
whole process of production takes from 
2 to 2J hours. 

Not only is the electric process much 
cheaper, but the electric steel surpasses 
greatly that of any crucible steel ever 
made, both in quality and chemical 


purity. By this process the steel is 
freed and kept clear of all gas and 
bubbles, which has never been possible 
by the old methods. Electric steel is 
more easily worked because of its su¬ 
perior purity, and permits the intro¬ 
duction of from 20 to 30 per cent more 
carbon than in the crucible steel. It 
can be forged easier, is not easily af¬ 
fected, like the crucible steel, by the 
damaging influence of overheating; it 
is stronger and offers a much greater 
resistance to wear and tear. 

— « ♦- 

NOVEL ROLLER GEAR FOR 
MOTORCYCLES 


Undoubtedly one of the most radical 
changes that have been made in motor¬ 
cycles for the season of 1907 is the 
entire elimination of the short motor 
drive chain, that was most given to 
stretch and wear. In its place there 
has been substituted a roller gear drive 
which is simplicity itself—merely a 
roller pinion gear affixed to the drive 
shaft of the motor and which engages 
with a hardened steel gear wheel or 
sprocket mounted on the countershaft 
cup, the sprocket embodying the Indian 
brass friction or compensating rings, 
which are of double the usual size. 



New Roller Gear 

















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


267 


r I he roller pinion consists of fourteen 
hardened steel rollers mounted on 
hardened pins which are held in place 
by one ring and so arranged that any 
pin or roller may be replaced in no 
time at all. Both the roller and its 
engaging sprocket are enclosed in a 


dust-proof gear case and continuously 
run in an oil hath. As will be seen 
from the accompanying photograph the 
whole idea is wonderfully simple and 
well executed and presents a neat and 
compact appearance without sacrificing 
strength. 



The above illustration shows one of the three-wheeled delivery motor cars used by 
the Evening News, London, for the rapid distribution of its papers about the city. 


ELECTRICITY FOR SURGICAL 
OPERATIONS 


Dr. Tuffler, of the Beaujon Hospital, 
Paris, announces a successful use of 
electricity in producing a sleep of 
insensibility, which can be maintained, 
and in the administration of which the 
heart is not affected. He is hopeful it 
will do away with anesthetics. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

SMELLING FOR A LIVING 


A new occupation has been developed 
in London and already is being suc¬ 
cessfully worked. The requirement is 
a sensitive sense of smell, and a little 
practise makes the detector quite pro¬ 
ficient. He inspects the gas pipes and 
fixtures of a building and charges 18 
cents for each leak he discovers. Some 
of the men earn $15 per week. 


INTERLOCKING STEEL SHEET 
PILING 


The latest thing in steel sheet piling 
for cofferdams, caissons and founda¬ 
tion work is a modified form of I-beam 
the flanges of which interlock with 
each other. Piles with web J-in. thick 


T 

weigh 40 lb. per square foot. A hole 
is punched in the end of each pile for 
the insertion of a hook in pulling the 
pile out if desired. 




■/2 


«|<o. 




sr 































ENCYCLOPEDIA 



WORK OF THE WRECK-CLEARING CREW 


No army or city fire department has 
a better organization than the wreck¬ 
clearing crew of a large railroad sys¬ 
tem. In these days a small number of 
men are required as compared with a 
few years ago, for a few experts with 
steam cranes can do in one hour what 
formerly required 50 or 100 men an 
entire day. The crew are given other 
work, but not far from the wrecking 
car in which steam is kept up con¬ 
stantly ; and a call to go out can 


usually be responded to in 15 minutes 
during the day or 30 minutes at night. 
The train usually consists of one loco¬ 
motive and four cars; the crane car, 
one for ropes, tackle and tools, one 
with extra trucks, and the boarding car 
equipped with kitchen and dining 
room and constantly stocked with food 
supplies, not only to serve its own 
crew but a large additional force if 
necessary. A modern wrecking crane 
will lift from 75 to 100 tons. 


-» ♦ ♦- 

KNOCK-DOWN BARRELS 


At last a practical knock-down barrel 
is available, and they are now being 
made in large quantities and shipped 
to the West Indies and Central Amer¬ 
ica. They will return filled with pine¬ 
apples, bananas, other tropical fruits 
and vegetables. The barrels are regu¬ 
lar size but first made in longitudinal 
halves, in which shape they are 
“nested” for shipment, the parts of 10 


barrels occupying only the space re¬ 
quired for one barrel when erected. 
The barrel is preferred for shipping 
because one man can roll one where 
two men are required to lift a box 
containing the same weight. 

The illustrations from the American 
Exporter show the process of assemb¬ 
ling the parts, which can be done with 
cheap labor. 



Fig. 1—Setting up the two Halves. Fig. 2—Clamping the Barrel Together. Fig. 3—Making the Bur¬ 
lap Hoop and Nailing the Barrel Together. Fig. 4— Barrels Nested for Shipment. Three in & 
Bundle. Fig. 5—Form for Nailing Barrels Together. 





























ENCYCLOPEDIA 


269 


SEA ANCHORS FOR COLLIERS 

[Extracted from a paper by Spencer Miller, read 
before the Society of Naval Architects and 
Marine Engineers.] 

Coaling a battleship at sea is one of 
the achievements of recent years, and 
means a great deal more than the 



Copyright Soc’y N»val Archite ts and Marino Engineers 


New Sea Anchor at Left-=01d Type Sea Anchor at Upper Right==Collier in Tow of Battleship 
which is Coaling in Mid-Ocean»Collier has her Sea Anchor out 


average reader would suppose. With¬ 
out fuel these sea-monsters are more 
helpless than the clumsiest little fishing 
smack, and would immediately fall an 
easy victim to the enemy. The time 
spent and the fuel consumed in making 
a coaling port and returning to her 
former station might easily spell de¬ 
feat; hence great coal ships now accom¬ 
pany all naval fleets in times of active 
service. 

As the two vessels cannot make fast 
to each other on the high seas a system 
of aerial tramway has been used to 
convey the coal in bags or buckets from 
one ship to the other. This is accom¬ 
plished by means of immense towing 
lines from stern of battleship to bow 
of collier, while the cableway leads 
from the mastheads. To keep the cable- 
way taut a wire rope is passed from the 
collier’s foretopmast to maintopmast, 
and then over the stern for 1,700 ft. 
At the end is fastened one or two sea- 
anchors as required. These sea-anchors 


are from 5 ft. to 9 ft. in diameter at 
the mouth and taper to a point. They 
are really great canvas bags with suf¬ 
ficient cork attached to float them; and 
exert a pull ranging from 102 lb. for 
a 5-ft. anchor at a speed of 1 mile per 
hour up to 65,240 lb. for a 9-ft. anchor 
at 14 miles. An anchor pull of 12,500 
lb. is required to support buckets car¬ 
rying 1-ton loads. 

What is termed the new or multi¬ 
plane sea-anchor seems likely to super¬ 
sede the conical, which has a faculty of 
diving, turning and getting all “balled 
up” at the most inopportune moment. 
The new anchor consists of five 4-ft. 
canvas squares, weighs 325 lb., exerts 
a straight and steady pull, is easily 
launched and recovered, and altogether 

is much better behaved. 

-»♦ ♦-- 

A perfect vacuum is a perfect insu¬ 
lator, although a partial vacuum con¬ 
ducts electricity much better than air 
at atmospheric pressure. 





















270 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



WHAT SPEED COSTS 


THE WEIGHT OF A CROWD 


In order for the big Cunard liners 
to gain their 1J knots greater speed 
than the “Kaiser Wilhelm IPs/’ Ger¬ 
many’s fastest ship, necessitated the 


following extra equipment: Six boil¬ 
ers, 68 furnaces, over 52,000 sq. ft. 
of heating surface and the develop¬ 
ment of 30,000 additional horsepower. 
The increase in dimensions necessary 
is: Length, 78J ft.; breadth, 16 ft.; 
depth, 4 ft.; displacement, 12,000 tons. 
The use of turbines, however, elimi¬ 
nates many difficulties. 

-» ♦ ♦-- 

WATERWAY MONTREAL TO 
NEW YORK 


A Canadian company with $8,000,- 
000 capital proposes to join an Amer¬ 
ican company in establishing an all 
water route between Montreal and 
New York city. In connection with 
this work the Canadian company plans 
a 100,000-hp. power plant to utilize a 
water power near Montreal. 


French and American engineers dif¬ 
fer in their estimate of the factor of 
safety in public halls and other con¬ 
structions to be occupied by standing 

crowds. Prof. John¬ 
son, of Harvard, in 
1904 estimated the 
maximum load at 
160 lb. per square 
foot. 

In the discussion 
of two years past, 
experts of several 
countries placed the 
weight at widely dif¬ 
ferent figures, rang¬ 
ing all the wav from 
40 lb. to 1431 lb. 
per square foot. This 
led Prof. Johnson to 
make additional ex¬ 
periments, which he 
did bv constructing 
a wooden case with 
a floor area of 36.25 
sq. ft. The compart¬ 
ment rested on scales 
for accurately weigh¬ 
ing the loads. The 
f o u r illustrations 
show: Fig. 1, 10 

persons weighing 1,462 lb.; Fig. 2, 20 
persons weighing 2,915 lb.; Fig. 3, 37 
persons weighing 5,372 lb. In Fig. 4 
are 40 persons crowded into the same 
space with a total weight of 5,800 lb., 
and presents a condition such as com¬ 
monly occurs when great crowds 
gather, as on the occasion of parades, 
or in those portions of halls where 
standing room is allowed. 

-- 


At present no builder would think 
of erecting a residence for sale with¬ 
out hardwood floors. The rapidly ad¬ 
vancing price of hard wood, however, 
and the constant labor necessary to 
keep such floors presentable are likely 
to greatly reduce its use. In many 
banks, offices and public places the 
hardwood floors are being covered 
with linoleum. 







































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


271 


BRINGING DOWN A 165=FT. STACK 



Courtesy of Henry Buestrio & dons 

Three Mages of the Falling Chimney 


The 165-ft. brick stack which 30 
years ago was the tallest structure in 
Milwaukee was recently razed to make 
room for a new plant. The stack 
weighed 505 tons, contained 184,000 
brick and was 10 ft. 6 in. square at the 
base. On account of boiler rooms and 
other buildings on three sides it was 
necessary to drop the stack within a 
comparatively narrow space, and to tear 
down from the top meant loss of the 
bricks. 

The chimney was first undermined 


on one side, 20 jaoks being placed to 
support the load, then the jacks were 
removed one at a time and oak timbers 
substituted with a greased skidway at 
the bottom. When all was ready a 
cable and windlass withdrew the skid. 
The stack remained intact for one- 
third the distance to the ground, as 
seen in the second view, then broke off 
about 40 ft. from the top, as shown in 
the right hand view; the upper sec¬ 
tion struck the ground perceptibly later 
than the lower section. 


-» ♦ ♦- 

TARRED GRAVEL FOR ROADS 


A new elastic road covering is being 
tested in Switzerland with gratifying 
results, it is said. Fine gravel is freed 
of all earthy matter; then, in a special 
machine, heated and every particle 
coated with tar. It is then put up in 
heaps and left for from eight to ten 
weeks, fermentation occurring in the 
meantime, causing the tar to penetrate 


the pores of the stone. This macadam 
is put on the roads in dry weather, 
using no water in smoothing it down 
with steam rollers and observing great 
cleanliness in handling it. For 28 bu. 
of gravel only 44 lb. of tar is required. 
A road was tested with a six-horse 
wagon, load-1 with ten tons, to the 
satisfaction of all concerned. 
















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Wireless Telephonic Communication has been held between Berlin and 
Nauen, Germany, a distance of 24 miles. It is said that the conversation was 
perfectly intelligible and also, that the field of successful operation will be 
illimitable. A microphone was used in connection with wireless telegraphy 
apparatus. 

Search for the North Pole will again be undertaken by Commander 
Robert E. Peary, he says, but this time he will direct the expedition from the 
ship or winter quarters, at the north end of Grant Land, sending out sledge 
parties to cover the intervening 450 miles to the Pole. 

The English Channel Tunnel is the next great engineering work in 
prospect. A bill providing for a submarine railway, lighted and operated by 
electricity, between Dover, England, and the French shore will be brought 
up before the British parliament at its next session. The project involves an 
expenditure of $80,000,000. 

Milk Bottle Exchange. —Milkmen frequently get bottles belonging to 
other dealers than their own. At the exchange the milkman receives one cent 
apiece for these bottles and may obtain his own company’s bottles at two cents 
each. 

Engineering Needed at Cornell —It seems a surprising though sad 
commentary that a club house costing half a million dollars, and occupied by 
embryo engineers, should burn and cause the death of seven men. While 
these students were passing severe examinations on tensile strengths of beams, 
and safety factors in bridges, many of them were sleeping in a fire trap. 

Motor Trucks in St. Bernard Pass. —The monks of the famous St. 
Bernard Pass now use motor trucks instead of dogs and horses, as of old, to 
bring their supplies from the valley to the monastery on the mountain heights 
above the snow line. The authorities, however, fearing the autos may scare 
horses on the narrow pass, have ordered the monks to hitch horses to their cars. 

Christmas Gold Coins. —The demand for gold coins is so great at 
Christmas time that the government mints are busy weeks ahead of time pre¬ 
paring for it. Many persons send gold coins as gifts and many firms pay off in - 
gold at that time. Eagles, five-dollar and two and a half-dollar pieces are called 
for most. 

The Manufacture of Real Diamonds as claimed by a French chemist 
consists of packing pure iron and pure charcoal in a carbon crucible, heating ic 
in an electric furnace to 700° F., then plunging the crucible into cold water. The 
outer surface of the mass solidifies first and by the process of solidification of the 
liquid iron within, the carbon is squeezed out like water and crystallizes into 
diamonds. 

Cape Cod Canal. —At last a short cut from Boston to New York by water 
seems probable. The project is to cut a canal from Buzzard’s Bay on the south 
to Barnstable Bay on the north, a distance of eight miles. The channel would 
be 125 ft. wide at the bottom, 250 ft. wide at the top, with a depth of 25 ft. at 
low water. The canal will take three years to build, cost $10,000,000 and shorten 
the outside water route from Boston to New York by 120 miles, or about six hours. 

Railroad Accidents and Operation. —The accidents to passenger trains 
during the past few weeks in which two disasters alone cost over 100 lives, em¬ 
phasize the force of our statement in a recent issue. We quoted from sources 
which cannot be questioned, that the percentage of fatalities is more than twice 
as large as ten years ago. In the two big wrecks recently, had steel coaches 
instead of flimsy wooden sue!Is been used the number of killed would certainly 
have been greatly reduced. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


273 


Bid FIREPROOF HOTEL BUILT OF CONCRETE 


A 12-story fireproof 
hotel has been bnilt at 
Atlantic City in which 
no wood is used except 
for part of the interior 
finishing; the struc¬ 
ture proper is con¬ 
crete, tile and steel. 

The first pile for 
the foundations was 
driven on September 
. 10th and on December 
15th the concrete roof 
ivas completed. The 
framework is struc¬ 
tural steel and the 
walls and floors are 
reinforced concrete. A 
concrete dome three 
stories high surmounts 
the building. 

In the work, rapid¬ 
ity of construction, 
economy, exterior ap¬ 
pearance, fireproofness 
and the avoidance of 
undue noise were im¬ 
portant considerations. 
These were believed to 
be well met by the 
combination of rein¬ 
forced concrete and 
hollow tile construc¬ 
tion. 





Courtesy Trussed Concrete Steel Co. 

Built of Steel and Concrete 


MOTOR CAR FOR ARMY TELEGRAPH CONSTRUCTION 


The signal service of the Austrian 
army have adopted a 3-wheel motor 
car for emergency telegraph and tele¬ 
phone construction. One man operates 
the car while the other feeds out the 
wire from a reel fastened in front of 
him. A pole with a D-shaped guide at 
the end is used to raise the wire or 
when held horizontally deposits the 
wire along the side of the road. The 
system is said to enable a more rapid 
construction of lines than has ever 
been attained in any other way. 



Stringing Wire 


















274 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


INGENIOUS SHOP=LIFTING APPARATUS 



Book with Spaces for Jewels==Dummy hand Bag with Secret Compartment—Garters with Goods 

hung on Hooks 


The art of the shop-lifter has been 
reduced to a science in which many 
mechanical devices are employed to 
facilitate the work and conceal the 
stolen goods. The London police re¬ 
cently made an arrest of a female 
expert who was literally covered from 
head to foot with evidences of theft, 
and without any one of the several 
dozen articles being visible to the keen¬ 
eyed store detectives. 

In her hair were valuable pieces of 
small jewelry; under the skirt was a 
well filled bag easily reached through a 
false pocket; a book carried under the 
arm had been prepared with spaces to 
hold rings and gems; a dummy hand 


satchel had a trap door at one end held 
shut by means of a spring. Her garters 
were sewed with spring hooks and 
clasps for hanging various articles; a 
slit in the skirt enabled easy access, 
while a piece of wax attached to the 
sole of the shoe next the heel enabled 
the picking up of jewelry after it was 
dropped to the floor. What appeared 
to be an innocent cuff ornament was 
really a spring-clip that dexterously 
picked up articles on the show case 
while the hand was in full view. On 
the persoli of the shop-lifter described 
were found 47 articles having a total 
value of several hundred dollars—the 
result of one day’s operations. 



THE “KAISER WILHELM DER GROSS E” after the collision with the “Orinoco” off 
Cherbourg. Some 60 sq. yds. of the “Kaiser Wilhelm’s” bow were torn away, the damage 
amounting to $200,000. Five passengers were killed and one injured. That the results 
were no worse is surprising. 













ENCYCLOPEDIA 


275 


QUARRYING MARBLE IN GEORGIA 


Georgia marbles are being used in 
all parts of our own country as well 
as exported to Europe and Canada. 
The yearly production of these works 
is very large, a single quarry taking 


out as high as 500,000 cu. ft. The 
marble is cut by means of stone chan¬ 
neling machines, gadders and rock 
drills. Machines of latest improvement 
have cut as high as 21 ft. 8 in. in 20 



„ mnrhlft has been removed to a depth of 175 tt. Note the manner in which th® corner and aides 

Quarry from which marblehas been r emovea jo a fcy ^ Swivel Head channe i e r 8 . 















276 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


minutes, which would be at a rate of 
650 sq. ft, in a 10-hour day. For 
ordinary machines, however, 80 to 90 
ft. is considered a. good day’s work ol 
7 J hours. 

Frequently the high grade marble 


extends under a hill with cheaper stone 
overlaying. In such cases the practice 
is to cut back into the hill as the exca¬ 
vation grows deeper, leaving an over¬ 
hanging wall such as is shown in the 
illustration. 


-» » ♦ - 

AFRICA PROMISES GREATEST ELECTRICAL UNDER= 

TAKING EVER ATTEMPTED 


Transmission 600 Miles at 150,000 Volts Planned 


Darkest Africa will soon become the 
lightest place in the world if the stu¬ 
pendous undertaking now planned is 
carried out. The Victoria Falls on 
the Zambesi have a breadth of 5,400 
ft. and a drop of 330 ft., with millions 
of horsepower going to waste daily as 
the waters plunge into the gorge below. 

The plan is a daring one and con¬ 
templates long distance transmission of 
600 miles, which is nearly four times 
the longest transmission line at pres¬ 
ent, with a voltage of 150,000 carried 
on bare cables. The present chief mar¬ 
ket for power would be Johannesburg. 

The initial construction contem¬ 
plates a power house of 50,000 lip. at 
the bottom of the gorge just below the 
falls. 

When the local agents of the Zam¬ 
besi power company in Chicago and 
other large American cities are selling 


current transmitted by wireless from 
Victoria Falls it will cause no greater 
wonder then than wireless telegraph 
does now; and the power transmission 
is really a more likely accomplishment 
than the telephone seemed not many 


HOLLAND’S HARMLESS SUBMA= 

RINE 


Holland, the well known authority 
on submarines, announces his expecta¬ 
tion to shortly complete plans for a 
new craft which will not be a de¬ 
stroyer but will win by putting a vessel 
out of commission without loss of per¬ 
haps a single life. He declares it “will 
be the real thing in submarines, and 
the chief instrument in doing away 
with wars.” All of which has a very 
pleasing and Utopian sound. 



Victoria Falls, 5,400 Ft. Wide Compared With Oxford St., London 














ENCYCLOPEDIA 


277 


STEEL PASSENGER CARS BOUND TO COME 


It is hue that' present passenger coaches are somewhat longer and much 
heaviet, and will resist impacts that would leave wrecked cars built ten or fifteen 
years ago. It is true, also, that they are operated at much higher speeds, and 
while it may seem a broad statement, our average passenger coach today is rela¬ 
tively no stronger than the cars of our forefathers. If this is doubted a perusal 
of the newspaper reports of a few wrecks in late years will suffice. For high¬ 
speed service it is practically essential to use a steel car, if the safety of the 
passengers is desired. The splinters from the old wooden warships in time of 
action killed more men than the cannon balls. We have been over the Spanish 
fleet scare for some years and do not expect anyone to fire 13-in. shells at our 
cars, yet in a collision the conditions are not dissimilar. The force of impact 
will splinter the sills, posts and side plates, and a passenger caught in the wreck¬ 
age has not much chance, particularly with the addition of fire. In the steel car 
the passengers may suffer contusions, but these are cheaper, from a claim de¬ 
partment standpoint than an amputated limb. Aside from the question of acci¬ 
dents, steel passenger cars should be a good investment. The repairs are less; 
the life much longer; and the cost and weight of a steel passenger coach very 
near that of a ivooden car built to the same specifications.” — J. F. MacEnulty 
before the New England Railway Club. 



Steel Passenger Car After Wreck—Note Its Good Condition 

Steel freight cars have now been in use about eight years. Of 225,000 
freight cars ordered from nine of the car builders in 1895, two-thirds were steel. 
The steel freight car was first built to enable the carrying of loads unsafe in 
cars constructed of wood. Soon it was found the repairs were greatly less than 
on wooden cars, and that a steel car could go in a wreck and be repaired for $50 
which would have absolutely destroyed a wooden car. 

One instance will illustrate this point: Several cars, each containing 50 
tons of ore, ran three miles down a 4 per cent grade, and with the engine jumped 
over the end of a switch-back, the cars and engine going by actual measurement 
422 ft. before striking the ground; the point of contact was frozen ground, 
the drop being 53 ft. from track level. The engine and cars then rolled 516 ft. 
The cost of repairing the bodies of these seven cars was only $350 each. A 





278 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


wooden car under similar circumstances would have been nothing but kindling 
wood. There would have been the usual bonfire to recover a few dollars’ worth 
of truss rods, grab irons, etc. 

A wooden passenger coach today may be likened to a man-of-w’ar of a 
century ago, when the flying splinters killed more men than bullets and cannon 
balls. The battleship of today is planned to avoid the use of wood wherever 
possible, and when one goes into action the decks are cleared of everything which 
can possibly be removed. 

In the wrecks of passenger trains of the past few years, the greatest loss of 
life has not been from cars rolling down high embankments, nor going through 
bridges to a watery death; but on level ground, where the helpless victims have 
been burned to death before the eyes of lookers-on, who were helpless to 
render aid. 

How much longer will this condition be allowed to continue? 

-» ♦ ♦- 


NEW CONCRETE BASE FOR 
RAILS 


For several years past many street 
railways in England have laid their 
rails in longitudinal beams of concrete 
instead of on wood cross-ties. The 
same method was also used in Detroit 
to some extent. In both cases the base 
of the rail was embedded in the con¬ 
crete while soft and when it hardened 



the rail was literally fastened as solid 
as a rock. 

• 

An adaptation of this system is de¬ 
scribed in Municipal Engineering. The 
longitudinal concrete base is used, but 
at frequent and regular intervals 
square holes are left in the top. Into 
these holes, blocks made of hard burned 
vitrified clay are inserted, the top of 
the block being grooved to fit the 
base of the rail and hold it. Blocks 
of wood may be substituted and the 
rail spiked as on a cross-tie. After 
the rail is in place tar is poured to fill 
the cracks and prevent the admission 
of water. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

GLASSLESS GOGGLES 


Glassless goggles for automobilists 
is the very latest in the novelty line, 
a French eye specialist having hit upon 
the idea in eye protection which, it is 
claimed, will eliminate the disadvan¬ 
tages of the present type. Instead of 
glass the lenses are made of thin sheets 
of steel, in each of which are three 
narrow slits, one being cut horizon¬ 
tally, intersected near the nose by a 
perpendicular slit, the junction of the 
two slits forming a right angle. Be¬ 
low the horizontal slit is another slit, 
which is cut a slant toward the outside 
of the lens. The efficiency of these 
slits is based upon the scientific prin¬ 
ciple that an opening of a small diam¬ 
eter has the same effect upon the lum- 




Concrete Track Base 









ENCYCLOPEDIA 


279 


inous rays as the central point of a con¬ 
vex lens. If the eye is placed near to 
the opening the angle taken in is very 



large and proportionate to the diameter 
of the opening. The vision obtained 
through the slits is claimed to be 
brighter and sharper than through or¬ 
dinary goggles, while blurred sight 
caused by rain, mud, dust and steam, 
is entirely eliminated. It also is im¬ 
possible for flying stones to break 
them as with goggles with glass lenses. 
From a medical point of view the new 
goggles prevent swelling and conjunc¬ 
tivitis. 

-» • ♦- 

A NEW DETACHABLE SPROCKET 

CHAIN 


. The illustration shows the evolution 
of a new detachable sprocket chain, 
which is so designed that it can be 
made from flat stock by punching and 
forming in a single machine. The 
stock enters the machine from one side 
in the form of a long steel ribbon and 
emerges from the opposite side in the 
form of finished chain, ready for hard¬ 
ening. As the chain leaves the ma¬ 
chine it is automatically wound on a 
large reel, controlled by an ingenious 
feed mechanism, which winds the 
chain as fast as it is made. 


ELECTRIC ROAD BUILT IN A 
NIGHT 


In a frantic effort to get an electric 
line 2,000 ft. long in operation before 
an injunction could be issued, a street 
railway company in Cleveland con¬ 
structed the most unique trolley line 
ever seen. 

The track was laid on top of the 
pavement, no ties being used, and the 
rails held in place by iron braces. To 
dig holes and erect trolley poles would 



A Mushroom Track 

have required several days, so 4 by 6- 
in. planks built in the form of a gal¬ 
lows were used for poles. The bottom 
of the “pole” rested in a barrel of 
cinders and each pole was tied and 
guyed to a wagon loaded with stone or 
sand. The scheme was clever, but the 
injunction arrived just in time to put 
the road out of business before the first 
car could be run. There were four 
other tracks already on the same street. 



New Detachable Sprocket Chain 


















280 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


LEANLNG SKYSCRAPERS THE 40 STYLES OF CHAIRS 


Consternation prevailed for a time 
recently among the hundreds of occu¬ 
pants of a Chicago skyscraper when 
the discovery was announced that the 
17-story structure was 14 in. out of 
plumb. Fears were allayed by the city 
building department’s statement that 
the structure had been in that condi¬ 
tion for months. 

Inquiry disclosed the fact that not a 
skyscraper in Chicago which is a year 
or more old but is more or less out of 
plumb owing to the yielding character 
of the earth underlying the city. An 
inspection is made every two months 
and records carefully tabulated by city 
inspectors. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

UTILITY OF THE SEISMOGRAPH 


The seismograph, that intensely sen¬ 
sitive recorder of vibrations in the 
earth’s crust announced in many wide¬ 
ly remote parts of the world a recent 
earthquake in Chile, hours in advance 
of any telegraphic news. These records 
are extremely interesting, and valuable 
as a matter of history, hut have not 
thus far been of any particular utility. 

The director of the observatory at 
Laibach, Austria, now suggests a very 
practical use. He calls attention to 
the fact that the roof of the Charing 
Cross railway station fell without 
warning the day after the observatory 
in his charge reported a great earth¬ 
quake; and he recommends that here¬ 
after when severe shocks are recorded 
that examination be promptly made of 
all large buildings which might be 

affected by the disturbance. 

-»-«- ♦- 

1907 MOTOR BOAT RACE 


The racing event for motor boats 
this year will be the long distance race 
from New York to Bermuda, a dis¬ 
tance of 778 miles. The start will be 
on June 8 under the auspices of the 
Motor Boat Club of America. Boats 
must not be less than 39 ft. length nor 
more than 60 ft.; carry a small sail, 
five men and stores for 30 days. 


There are 40 distinct styles of chairs 
embracing the period from 3000 B. C. 
to 1900 A. D.—nearly 7,000 years. Of 
all the millions of chairs made during 
the centuries, each one can be classi¬ 
fied under one or more of the 40 gen¬ 
eral styles shown in the chart. This 
chart was compiled by the editor of 
Decorative Furniture. The Colonial 
does not appear on the chart because 
* it classifies under the Jacobean and 
other styles. A condensed key to the 
chart follows: 

Egyptian.—3000 B. C. to 500 B. C. Seems 
to have been derived largely from the Early 
Asian. It influenced Assyrian and Greek 
decorations, and was used as a motif in some 
French Empire decoration. Not used in its 
entirety except for lodge rooms, etc. 

Grecian.—700 B. C. to 200 B. C. Influenced 
by Egyptian and Assyrian styles. It had a 
progressive growth through the Doric, Ionic 
and Corinthian periods. It influenced the 
Roman style and the Pompeian, and all the 
Renaissance styles, and all styles following 
the Renaissance, and is still the most im¬ 
portant factor in decorations today. 

Roman.—750 B. C. to 450 A. D. Rome took 
her art entirely from Greece, and the Roman 
is purely a Greek development. The Roman 
style “revived” in the Renaissance, and in 
this way is still a prominent factor in mod¬ 
ern decoration. 

Pompeian.—100 B. C. to 79 A. D. Some¬ 
times called the Grecian-Roman style, which 
well describes its components. The style we 
know as Greek was the Greek as used in 
public structures. The Pompeian is our best 
idea of Greek domestic decoration. Pompeii 
was long buried, but when rediscovered it 
promptly influenced all European styles, in¬ 
cluding Louis XXT, and the various Georgian 
styles. 

Byzantine.—300 A. D. to 1450 A. D. The 

“Eastern Roman” style, originating in the 
removal of the capital of the Roman Empire 
to Constantinople (then called Byzantium). 
It is a combination of Persian and Roman. 
It influenced the various Moorish, Saracenic 
and other Mohammedan styles. 

Gothic.—1100 to 1550. It had nothing to do 
with the Goths, but w^as a local European 
outgrowth of the Romanesque. It spread all 
over Europe, and reached its climax of de¬ 
velopment about 1550. It was on the Gothic 
construction that the Northern European and 
English Renaissance styles were grafted to 
form such styles as the Elizabethan, etc. 

Moorish.—700 to 1600. The various Moham¬ 
medan styles can all be traced to the ancient 
Persian through the Byzantine. The Moorish 
or Moresque was the form taken by the Mo¬ 
hammedans in Spain. 

Indian—2000 B. C. to 1906 A. D. The East 
Indian style is almost composite, as expected 
of one with a growth of nearly 4 000 years. 
It has been influenced repeatedly by outside 
forces and various religious invasions, and 
has, in turn, influenced other far Eastern 
styles. 

Chinese.—3500 B. C. to 1906 A. D. Another 
of the ancient styles. It had a continuous 
growth up to 230 B. C., since when it has 
not changed much. It has influenced West¬ 
ern styles, as in the Chippendale, Queen 
Anne, etc. 









ENCYCLOPEDIA 


281 





DUTCH RENAISCE. 


GERMAN RENAIS'CE 


FRANCOIS 1 


HENRI ||. 


Japanese.—1200 B. C. to 1906 A. D. A style 
probably springing originally from China, but 
now absolutely distinct. It has influenced 
recent art in Europe and America, especially 
the “New Art” styles. 

Italian Gothic.—1100 to 1500. The Italian 
Gothic differs from the European and English 
Gothic in clinging more closely to the Ro- 
manesque-Byzantine originals. 


Tudor. —1485 to 1558. The earliest entry of 
the Renaissance into England. An applica¬ 
tion of Renaissance to the Gothic founda¬ 
tions. Its growth was into the Elizabethan. 

Italian Renaissance, Fifteenth Century— 
1400 to 1500. The birth century of the Re¬ 
naissance. A seeking for revival of the old 
Roman and Greek decorative and construc¬ 
tive forms. 



































































































































282 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



LOUIS XIII. 



QUEEN ANNE. 



ELIZABETHAN. 



LOUIS XIV 




GEORGIAN. 



WILLIAM MARY 


CMIPPENDALE. 



LOUIS XV. 



HEPPLEWHITE. 




LOUIS XVI 


SHERATON 




R. & J. ADAM. 


EMPIRE. 




BRITISH NEW ART. 


L’ART NOUVEAU 



MODERN AUSTRIAN 





scotch new Part 


ARTS & CRAFTS 


MISSION 


Italian Renaissance, Sixteenth Century— 
1500 to 1600. A period of greater elaboration 
of detail and more freedom from actual 
Greek and Roman models. 

Italian Renaissance, Seventeenth Century— 
1600 to 1700. The period of great elaboration 
and beginning of reckless ornamentation. 

Spanish Renaissance.—1500 to 1700. A va¬ 


riation of the Renaissance spirit caused by 
the combination of three distinct styles—the 
Renaissance as known in Italy, the Gothic 
and the Moorish. In furniture the Spanish 
Renaissance is almost identical with the 
Flemish, which it influenced. 

Dutch Renaissance.—1500 to 1700. A style 
influenced alternately by the French and the 
























































































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


283 


Spanish. This style and the Flemish had a 
strong influence on the English William and 
Mary and Queen Anne styles, and especially 
on ,the Jacobean. 

German Renaissance.—1550 to 1700. A style 
introduced by Germans who had gone to 
Italy to study. It was a heavy treatment of 
the Renaissance spirit, and merged into the 
German Baroque about 1700. 

Francis 1.—1515 to 1549. The introductory 
period when the Italian Renaissance found 
foothold in France. It is almost purely Ital¬ 
ian, and was the forerunner of the Henri II. 

Henri II.—1549 to 1610. In this the French 
Renaissance became differentiated from the 
Italian, assuming traits that were specifical.y 
French and that were emphasized in the 
next period. 

Louis XIII.—1616 to 1643. A typically 
French style, in w r hich but few traces of its 
derivation from the Italian remained. It was 
followed by the Louis XIV. 

Elizabethan.—1558 to 1603. A compound 
style containing traces of the Gothic, much 
of the Tudor, some Dutch, Flemish and a 
little Italian. Especially noted for its fine 
w T ood carving. 

Jacobean.—1603 to 1689. The English pe¬ 
riod immediately following the Elizabethan, 
and in most respects quite similar. The 
Dutch influence was, however, more promi¬ 
nent. The Cromwellian, which is included in 
this period, was identical with it. 

William and Mary.—1689 to 1702. More 
Dutch influences. All furniture lighter and 
better suited to domestic purposes. 

Queen Anne.—1702 to 1714. Increasing 
Dutch influence. Jacobean influence finally 
discarded. Chinese influence largely present. 

Louis XIV.—1643 to 1715. The greatest 
French style. An entirely French creation, 
marked by elegance and dignity. Toward 
the end of the period it softened into the 
early Rococo. 

Georgian.—1714 to 1820. A direct outgrowth 
of the Queen Anne, tempered by the prevail¬ 


ing French styles. It includes Chippendale, 
Hepplewhite and Sheraton, but these tnree 
great cabinetmakers were sufficiently distinct 
from the average Georgian to be worthy sep¬ 
arate classification. 

Chippendale.—1754 to 1800. The greatest 
English cabinet style. Based on the Queen 
Anne, but drawing largely from the Rococo, 
Chinese and Gothic, he produced three dis¬ 
tinct types, viz.: French Chippendale, Chi¬ 
nese Chippendale and Gothic Chippendale. 
The last is a negligible quantity. 

Louis XV.—1715 to 1774. The Rococo pe¬ 
riod. The result of the efforts of French 
designers to enliven the Louis XIV, and to 
evolve a new style out of one that had 
reached its logical climax. 

Hepplewhite. — 1775 to 1800. Succeeded 
Chippendale as the popular English cabinet¬ 
maker. By many he is considered his supe¬ 
rior. His work is notable for a charming 
delicacy of line and design. 

Louis XVI.—1774 to 1793. The French 
style based on a revival of Greek forms, and 
influenced by the discovery of the ruins of 
Pompeii. 

Sheraton.—1775 to 1800. A fellow cabinet¬ 
maker, working at same time as Hepple¬ 
white. One of the Colonial styles (Georgian). 

R. & J. Adam.—1762 to 1800. Fathers of 
an English classic revival. Much like the 
French Louis XVI and Empire styles in 
many respects. 

Empire.—1804 to 1814. The style created 
during the Empire of Napoleon I. Derived 
from classic Roman suggestions, with some 
Greek and Egyptian influences. 

New Arts.—1900 to date. These are va¬ 
rious worthy attempts by the designers of 
various nations'to create a new style. Some 
of the results are good, and they are apt to 
be like the “little girl who had a little curl 
that hung in the middle of her forehead,” in 
that “when they are good they are very, 
very good, but when they are bad they are 
horrid.” 





Couiteny Potter Wig. Co. 

STERN WHEEL CRUISER 


With a draft of only 10 in. the 
48-ft. cruiser illustrated affords cruis¬ 
ing facilities unusual in shallow-water 
boats. The beam is 10 ft. and the head 
room in the cabins is 6 ft, 3 in. The 


main cabin finished in California red¬ 
wood divides into two commodious 
sleeping rooms by means of curtains. 
The berths are made up from the seats. 
A fresh water tank containing 80 gal. 










284 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


is carried forward with a large ice box. 

The motors are double cylinder 5 in. 
by 5 in., driving two paddle wheels of 
5 ft. diameter; paddle wheels are inde¬ 
pendent of each other and reverse. The 
boat will ride a fairly heavy sea, but 
was built for cruising in rivers and 
into lakes where weeds would render a 

propeller inoperative. 

-» ♦ ♦-— 

STEEL FORM FOR CONDUITS 


A recent invention calculated to ex¬ 
pedite the construction of concrete con¬ 
duits is called the collapsible steel cen¬ 
tering. It consists of plates of sheet 
steel bent to form the exact size of the 
conduit or sewer which is to be built. 
Steel rods brace the form while the 
concrete is poured and setting; then 



Section of Form 


the turnbuckles are unscrewed and the 
form taken down and moved away. 
Fifty lineal feet are sufficient to keep 

the work going. 

—-—♦ - 

SEA SALT STOPS STREET DUST 


Salt extracted from sea water has 
been recommended by a Bordeaux 
chemist for laying road dust. The sea 
water is placed in great shallow 
troughs and evaporated by the sun’s 
action. The different salts crystallize 
in order of insolubility, chloride of so¬ 
dium being the first to separate, while 
the others, more soluble, accumulate in 
the remaining water. 


A few quarts of this “mother sea 
water” are used to a ton of ordinary 
water for sprinkling roads. The sea 
salt absorbs the moisture from the at¬ 
mosphere, thus dampening the dust. 
The method would be inexpensive and 
practicable for places not far from the 
sea. 

-» . ♦ ♦- 

OUR 20,000=TON BATTLESHIP 


Ten designs were submitted by 
builders and one was prepared by the 
Bureau of Construction for the pro¬ 
posed 20,000-ton battleship; Secretary 
Bonaparte has recommended to con¬ 
gress the department’s own plan. Com¬ 
parison naturally will be made with 
the “Dreadnaugiit,” which shows our 
new battleship to be 10 ft. longer— 
510 ft.—3 ft. more beam and 2,000 
tons greater displacement; coal capac¬ 
ity is 400 tons less, equipment of 12-in. 
guns is the same, but the armor belt 
extends farther forward and aft. 

- » ♦ ♦ -- 

NEW RAILWAY EQUIPMENT IN 

1906 


New railway equipment ordered dur¬ 
ing 1906 was a little less than the pre¬ 
vious year hut makes a good showing. 
The Railway Age compiles the follow¬ 


ing figures: 

Locomotives . 5,642 

Passenger ears. 3,402 

Freight cars .310,805 

Miles track built. 6,067 


Texas built the most track, 701 
miles, and Massachusetts the least, 44 
miles. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

LAUNCH EARNS $600,000 A YEAR 


The most profitable boat in the 
world, if not the best paying commer¬ 
cial craft ever built, is the $15,000 
launch belonging to the water depart¬ 
ment of New York city. It is con¬ 
stantly in operation night and day 
along the water front and collects tolls 
from vesselmen who help themselves to- 
city water from street hydrants. The 
boat collects $600,000 a year. 






















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


285 


A PERISCOPE FOR THEATERS RAILWAY OVERHANGS PACIFIC 



The women still persist in wearing 
high hats in the Paris theaters and in 
self-defense the men are using an in¬ 
vention like the periscope of a sub¬ 
marine. The device which is called 


Where the Line Crosses Another Road’s Shops 


“The Giant’s Eye” resembles an ordi¬ 
nary cane, but is really a tube in which 
are lenses and mirrors. When raised 
the lens at the upper end is pointed at 
the stage while the man looks into 
another lens at the lower end of the 
tube. 


Between San Francisco and Santa 
Cruz, along the shore and overlooking 
the mighty Pacific, a remarkable piece 
of railroad construction is being car¬ 
ried on. The distance is only 85 miles, 
but San Pedro moun¬ 
tain, rugged and precip¬ 
itous, has stood a formi¬ 
dable obstacle in the 
way of other projected 
shore lines. 

At this point, prepara¬ 
tory to active construc¬ 
tion, surveyors were low¬ 
ered over the edge of the 
cliffs, hundreds of feet 
above the breakers of the 
angry Pacific, to lay the 
grade line. Then fol¬ 
lowed workmen, clinging 
to the cliff while like 
giant woodpeckers they drilled small 
holes and charged them with dynamite. 

At last a broad shelf was blasted 
out along which is being laid the track 
of the Ocean Shore Railway. The work 
in this region alone cost nearly 
$ 1 , 000 , 000 . 


-» ♦ ♦- 

NOVEL TYPE OF MOTOR BOAT 


The motor boat “Sho-Me” illus¬ 
trated herewith is more unusual than 
beautiful, and while built for fast mov¬ 
ing would be a doubtful proposition in 
heavy weather. The Motor Boat says 
it is owned in Daytona, Fla., and 
made a record of 3 152 over a meas¬ 
ured mile course. 


Other railroads fought against the 
new line in every possible way and 
made it very difficult to get into San 
Francisco. A long high trestle carries 
the line over the shops of another 
company into the heart of the city. 
-♦—» ♦- 

Astronomers are trying to photo¬ 
graph the sun’s corona without an 
eclipse, from the Janssen Observatory 
on the summit of Mont Blanc. 



The “Sho=Me,” Built for Speed 
























286 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


THE FOUNDING OF BELLS 


Requisite Qualities of the Metal-=Methods of Casting==Testing and Tuning 



Fig. l-=MouIds. Fig. 2 — Pouring the Casting. 
Fig. 3=-Testing a Chime Bell 


quirements for a bell 
are worked out mathe¬ 
matically, a suitable 
pattern board procured 
and a draft made which 
shows the inside diame¬ 
ter of the bell at the 
shoulder just half the 


In the sound-bow of a bell—that part 
of the circumference struck by the 
clapper—is found the most cosmopoli¬ 
tan of all expressions. The bell speaks 
the same language of joy, sorrow, or 
alarm to all nations. And the romance 
that has emanated from bells c ince our 
earliest records of their use in Egypt 
and Assyria extends even into their 
manufacture. The use to which the 
bell will be put determines the com¬ 
pound of metals its maker will select. 

The bell-metal commonly used is an 
alloy composed of 80 parts copper and 
20 parts tin, but every bell founder has 


his own variation of this formula, and 
in the product experience counts for a 
great deal. The metal is of a yellowish- 
gray color, hard, brittle and sonorous; 
a fracture in it shows a fine grain. 
The copper used, where quality of tone 
is desired, must be commercially pure, 
as the presence of lead, even in minute 
quantities, affects the tone. The larger 
the proportion of copper in the alloy 
the graver and deeper the tone of the 
bell; while by adding tin, zinc or iron 
a sharper tone results. Silver gives 
sweetness to the tone and many very 
old church bells contain a large amount 

of that metal. In some 
cases church bells have 
been cast from jewelry, 
coins and ornaments 
contributed by worship¬ 
ers. 

In the hell foundry 
the proportionate re¬ 
















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


237 


mouth diameter; the thickness of the 
bell through the sound-bow, one- 
fourteenth of the mouth diameter; the 
waist thickness, half the sound-bow; 
the shoulder thickness, a third of the 
sound-bow; and the heighth of the bell, 
about 11 times the thickness of the 
sound-bow. 

According to this lay-out, two sweep- 
boards are fashioned, one called the 
“core” sweep and the other the “case,” 
or outer sweep. Two iron flasks are 
provided, also, called the “case” and 
the “core.” The case is an inch or two 
larger than the required finished mould 
and in it the outer shape is moulded. 
The core is an inch or two smaller than 
the required finished mould and on this 
the inner shape is moulded. These 
moulds are shown in Fig. 1, the cope 
or case with its wide part up and the 
core with its wide part down. The 
moulds are each swept up with a rough 
loam coating on the casting surface 
and the outer mould receives an im¬ 
pression of the inscription which is to 
appear on the bell in raised letters, 
after which it is slicked over. 

The moulds are next closed and set 
around in order under a large crane 
ready for casting, and here there is a 
marked difference between our method 
and the European. It will be noticed 
that these iron flasks have numerous 
holes which are provided for a two¬ 
fold purpose—to make the loam coat¬ 
ing adhere better and to allow the gas 
which is generated during the few 
seconds required for the pouring to 
escape through these “vent” holes and 
burn itself out. The European method 
is to sweep up the moulds over brick 
cores in a pit, and then over this to 
sweep a bell of clay, and over this— 
beginning with the smooth coat—they 
lay on the outer loam form. When the 
moulds are done, they lift off the outer 
mould, break up the clay bell, replace 
the outer mould and then pack the 
whole in the pit by pressing down the 
dirt previously excavated and then 
weighting it down. Nothing shows 
above the foundry floor level but the 
“heads” or “gates,” into which the 



Chimes and Keyboard for Playing Them 


molten metal is poured. There is 
always danger of gas explosion by the 
European method. By our method this 
danger is reduced to practically noth¬ 
ing because all our casting is done 
above ground and an a way that allows 
the gas to burn out. 

Figure 2 shows how the metal is 
poured into the casting when prepared 
and also shows moulds ready for cast¬ 
ing set under the big crane previously 






















288 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


mentioned. The casting is usually 
done as early during the day as pos¬ 
sible, so as to give plenty of time for 
the metal to slowly cool down by the 
next day, when the bells are removed 
from the moulds to finish cooling. 

When the bells are intended for a 
peal or chime, they are lifted up and 
tested, as shown in Fig. 3, to ascertain 
their accuracy of pitch and if they are 


a little off, mechanical tuning brings 
them to standard. Bells for tower 
clocks or for fire alarm use or for a 
church or a school tower, used singly, 
are not tuned, as individuality of tone 
in such bells is desirable. 

Figure 4 shows how a chime of bells 
is set up and Fig. 5 shows the lever 
keyboard with which the chime is 
played. 


WOMAN CARPENTER WHO BUILT 
HER OWN HOUSE 


A woman who is an expert carpenter, 
as well as a brick mason and a painter, 
is not often found among the fair 
daughters of Mother Eve. 

California, however, pos¬ 
sesses such a woman, and 
she lives in Emeryville, 
one of the suburbs of the 
city of Oakland — just 
across the bay from San 
Francisco. 

This woman is a widow, 

35 years of age, and her 
name is Mrs. Bertha Bis- 
sell. She has, within the 
past few months, built, 
with her own hands, a 
very neat little one-story 
cottage containing five rooms and a 
porch. This building is what is known 
as a “box cottage”—25 by 15 ft.— 
containing a parlor, bed-room, dining¬ 
room and kitchen. At the front end is 
a narrow porch. 

All this work was done by Mrs. Bis- 
sell without the least assistance from 
any one. She drew the plans herself, 
and built accordingly. About 18 years 
ago Mrs. Bissell assisted her husband, 
who was a skilled carpenter. 

“All the plans I drew, and every 
piece of lumber in the building was 
measured, cut and put in place by my 
own hands/’ said Mrs. Bissell, “and so 
I know it was done right. There 
stands the cottage to speak for itself/’ 

She added: “I wouldn’t have any 
carpenters or men to help in this work, 
as 1 knew T was well capable of doing 
all the work myself. No, I had no 


assistance whatever. I laid the foun¬ 
dation, built the frame, put on the 
roof, painted inside and out, put in 
the windows and hung the doors. I 
think that’s not so very bad—for just 
a woman.” 


House Built by a Woman 

SIGNALING DEPTH OF HARBOR 
WATER 


A Scotch port has an ingenious sta¬ 
tion for signaling to in-coming and 
out-going vessels the depth of water in 
the fairway. A mast on top of a small 
rectangular building has a vertical 
cable on either side, one carrying four 
large balls at specific distances, the 
other three. Each ball represents a 
foot of water and it is raised and low¬ 
ered on the cable by a float in the 
harbor connected to gearing in the sig¬ 
nal house. At high tide all seven balls 
are visible, but as the tide falls, one 
by one the balls disappear. 

At night a system of powerful lights 
in the face of the building is used. 

o 

These lights are automatically turned 
on and off at the correct time. 


































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


289 



MOROCCO MOTOR SURF BOAT—A Sort of Modern Roman Galley Ship==The Men Stand Up to Pull 
and Fall Back upon the Seat at the End of the Stroke 


CUTTING CHRISTMAS TREES NOT 
WASTEFUL TO FORESTRY 


Most of the evergreens cut for 
Christmas trees would probably never 
make good timber and the species 
usually cut for that purpose have lit¬ 
tle other economic value. Many are 
open grown branchy trees that may 
actually have been a nuisance and it 
is the general opinion of foresters 
that there are few uses to which these 
small fir trees could be put which 
would contribute so much to the hap¬ 
piness and good of mankind as their 
use for children on Christmas day. 
-♦ * «- 

VASES WITH SIDE OPENINGS 


Among the new novelties shown by 
London jewelers are silver vases for 
flowers, with openings on the side as 



Gives a Pyramid Effect 


i 

! 

I 

shown in the illustration. This ar¬ 
rangement admits of a pyramid effect 
in one or more colors, according to the 
blossoms selected for the display. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

HOW TO ENCLOSE A STAMP 


On page 1066 of the October number 
I read “How to enclose a stamp,” but 

think the following a 
better method. With 
a pair of scissors or 
knife, which should 
be found on every 
desk, cut two slits on 
margin of paper as 
per illustration and 
tuck stamp in. This avoids moisture 
or mutilation of stamp.—Contributed 
by Mrs. H. J. Morton, 40 Campbell 
Park, Chicago. 

-» ♦ ♦-- 

PLAN TO EXTEND CHICAGO 
DRAINAGE CANAL 


It is planned to extend the Chicago 
drainage canal through Joliet and two 
miles below to Braden’s road and there 
establish a $1,000,000 power plant ca¬ 
pable of developing 40,000 hp. It is 
estimated that the revenue from this 
plant would approximate $500,000. 
Joliet would have an inland harbor 
averaging 200 ft. in width and 24 ft. 
deep. The extension of the canal, aside 
from the power plant, would cost 
$ 1 , 000 , 000 . 











































290 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


HOW GLASS BOTTLES ARE 
MADE 


By E. E. Andrews 


The manufacture of glass bottles, 
such as we see everywhere nowadays, is 
a very interesting process. There is a 
certain large firm near Chicago which 
turns out over a quarter of a million of 
these bottles every day and furnishes 
employment for hundreds of people. 
In this factory the glass is melted and 
the bottles blown around two furnaces. 
The larger of these is a continuous or 
tank furnace, constructed as shown in 
Fig. 1, which is a longitudinal cross 
section of the furnace. Its dimensions 
are 75 ft. long by 16 ft. wide and the 


furnace, but must be recharged with 
fresh material each time after one 
charge has been used. It takes about 
three days to melt,a charge in one of 
these pots, so, in order to avoid loss of 
time, two sets of pots are used, one set 
being filled with melting glass mate¬ 
rials while the other contains molten 
glass which is being used. 

The materials used in these furnaces 
are a very pure white silica sand, quick¬ 
lime, soda ash and saltpeter. When 
heated together the soda ash, quick¬ 
lime and silica flux together to form a 
transparent glass which has a deep 
green color owing to the presence of a 
small amount of iron in the sand. The 
addition of the saltpeter, however, 
oxidizes the iron so that the color 



Fig. l»Continuous Glass Furnace 


molten glass lays over the entire length 
to a depth of 5 ft. 

The glass materials are charged in 
at the rear door and are quickly melted 
by the intense heat of a blast of burn¬ 
ing gas which is forced in through the 
openings in the side. After the glass 
is melted the flame plays over it and 
renders it very hot, thus burning out 
the impurities and refining the glass. 
As it passes down, the tank the molten 
glass cools somewhat and is withdrawn 
at a bright yellow heat through the 
openings at the lower end. 

The other furnace consists of a num¬ 
ber of queerly shaped pots (Fig. 2) 
arranged in a circular brick tower with 
their necks sticking out through the 
wall. A gas flame is used to heat these 
pots, also, which do not yield a con¬ 
tinuous supply of glass as does the tank 


becomes a very light green, and this 
slight tinge is neutralized by a little 
manganese dioxide which, alone, would 
give a pink color to the glass. The 
molten glass corrodes the fireclay pots 
and furnace lining very rapidly, so that 
the furnace must be relined every year, 
while the life of a pot is only three to 
four months. 

The method of treating the glass 
after melting is the same in both fur¬ 
naces. The bottles are blown into cast 
iron dies (see Fig. 3) and in order to 
make a complete bottle a number of 
men are required, each doing a special 
part of the work. A glass blower stands 
in front of each opening, equipped with 
a small iron tube about 3 ft. long and 
i in. in diameter. He dips his tube in 
the glass, collects a small ball of it, 
pulls it out and blows it a little, mean- 






























































































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


291 . 



Fig. 2=-Single Pot in Pot Furnace. Fig. 3==Blower’s Pipe. Fig. 4==Holder for Hot Bottles. Fig. 5-= 
Die. Fig. 6==Neck of Bottle. Fig. 7==Tongs for Shaping Neck. 


while rolling it back and forth on a 
smooth iron plate until it becomes 
cylindrical in shape; then he puts the 
still hot glass cylinder in a die, which 
is opened to receive it and is closed on 
the glass. This die somewhat resembles 
a common waffle iron and when the 
blower applies a little air pressure the 
plastic glass expands inside it to form 
a bottle perfect in every part save the 
neck. 

A man operating the dies now re¬ 
moves the bottle - ready for another blow 
and a bov slips the hot bottle into a 
metal pocket at the end of an iron rod 
and places it in a small reheating fur¬ 
nace where the neck is heated to red¬ 
ness bv an oil flame. x4 third man 
4hen seizes the rod and grasps the hot 
neck in a specially shaped pair of 
wooden tongs. These tongs have a 
tongue just fitting into the neck of the 
bottle and two jaws with notches corre¬ 
sponding to ridges desired on the ex¬ 
terior of the neck so that when the 
bottle is rotated in these tongs the neck 
is given any desired shape. 

The glass after this treatment is 
extremely brittle and the bottles would 
be very easily broken. To overcome 
this defect they are placed in large 
pans and after being heated nearly to 
dull red are allowed to cool very slowly 
while passing through a long brick flue. 
After this thorough annealing, the cool 

bottles are packed and shipped. 

-» * - ♦- 

Hammering or vibrating a steel 
magnet diminishes its magnetism. 


DEEPENING THE RHINE 


The river Rhine between Mannheim 
and Strassburg, Germany, is to be 
deepened so as to be navigable all the 
year round. In its present state for a 
period of from 100 to 200 days vessels 
are unable to pass up the river to the 
extensive stone docks at Kehl and 
Strassburg on account of low water. 
In 1904 the river was only navigable 
during 150 days. Traffic up the river 
has increased from 11,513 tons in 1892 
to 807,194 tons in 1905. Cost of 
transportation from all ocean points 
into southwest Germany and Switzer- 
land is reduced by bringing freight up 
the Rhine to Strassburg. The cost of 
the improvement will be $3,212,000. 
-♦ — » ♦- 

RIPENING BANANAS BY ELEC= 
TRICITY 

An English electrical expert has dis¬ 
covered a means of ripening bananas 

to order. The 
bunches are 
hung in an air¬ 
tight glass case 
in which are a 
number of elec¬ 
tric lights. The 
artificial light 
and heat hasten 
the ripening process in proportion to 
the number of lights turned on. Rec¬ 
ords have been made which enable the 

operators to make delivery of any de¬ 
sired quantities at any agreed date. 




















































































292 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


LOCOMOTIVE CRANE 


A novel piece of wrecking machinery 
has been built by the Great Western 

c/ 

Ry. of England. It combines a loco¬ 
motive and crane in one, the engine 


LIFE=SAVING VEST 


An English inventor walked to the 
bank of a deep lake in a public park 
in London and threw himself into the 
water. Before the life saver statione 1 



English Locomotive Crane 


weighing 88,000 lb. and the crane 55,- 
000 . The length over all is 39 ft., and 
the lifting capacity 9 tons over a 12-ft. 
radius. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

TIN ROOF RESISTS FIRE 


The enduring qualities of a good tin 
roof when subjected to intense fire are 
described in the Metal Worker bv a 
Baltimore correspondent, in an article 
on the behavior of various types of 
roofing during the big conflagration in 
1904. He says: 

The Hew Assembly Rooms, so-called, 
were covered many years ago, probably 
50 years, with tin. The building 
caught fire about 6 p. m. and burned 
under and along the edges of the 
sheathing for hours, being extinguished 
and starting in new places. I watched 
it for two hours, and the building did 
not succumb until 3 o’clock the next 
morning, nine hours afterward, and 
then the tin roof lay all over the ruins, 
having fallen with the walls. It lay 
there for days, until the rebuilding be¬ 
gan. Good tin for roofing is the light¬ 
est, easiest repaired and the neatest 
roofing material that can be used; it is 
lightning and storm-proof and a fire 
retardant and fire confiner. 


on the ground could reach him the 
man had lit a cigar and was calmly 
reading a paper. It was his novel way 
of demonstrating the life-saving quali¬ 
ties of his “balloon vest,” the lining 
of which contains a rubber bag pass¬ 
ing around the body. This bag can be 
inflated by means of a rubber tube 
and mouthpiece, a check valve prevent- 



The Balloon Vest 


ing the escape of the air. The buoyant 
power of the bag of air is sufficient to 

keep the arms and head above water. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

A residence on the Hudson river has 
a noise-proof chamber 22 ft. square 
blasted out of the rock beneath its 
foundations. The room is fitted up for 
chess playing and was necessitated by 
the whistling of the river craft. 





















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


293 


TOBACCO STEMMING MACHINE 


There are 400,000,000 lb. of tobacco 
stemmed each year in this country 
alone; and practically all of it 
stemmed by hand, re- 
quiring the services of 
200,000 employes. 

For over 40 years past 
inventors have been 
spending their time and 
fortunes in what seemed 
the hopeless attempt to 
design a machine which 
would do this work. One 
Chicago inventor has 
worked steadily for 14 
years and has just won 
hard earned, but gratify¬ 
ing, success in the ma¬ 
chine illustrated. 

The leaves to be 
stemmed are fed into the 
machine, one at a thme, 
by unskilled labor and— 
the machine does the 
rest, removing the stem, 
cleaning the leaves, 
counting each one, 
throwing out the stem in 
one pile, and laying the 
leaf in another which 
when big enough constitutes a bale. 
From 70 to 140 stripped leaves con¬ 
stitute a pound. One experienced 


feeder or two green men will feed the 
two sides of the machine and run 
through 1,200 leaves per hour. The 
machine removes from tobacco manu¬ 
facturing one of the hardest and most 


unpleasant features of the work and 
at the same time effects a saving of 
300 per cent in the cost of the work. 



















294 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


FIGHT FOR LIFE IN SUBMARINE 


How the Crew of the French Boat “ Lutin’’ 
Met Their Fate 


It is known that the men of the ill 
fated submarine “Lutin” fought des¬ 
perately for their lives before being 
drowned, says the London Express. It 
will be remembered that the submarine 
went out in rough weather, and was 
followed by the tug “Iskeul.” After 
three dives Capt. Fepoux signaled to 
the tug that he was about to drop 48 
' ft. for a fourth dive. 

The water ballast was taken on board 

and the submarine disappeared in the 

waves. When it had arrived at a depth 

of 48 ft. (as the manometer showed 

him), the captain ordered the valye to 

be shut. The sailor whose dutv it was 

«/ 

did so, but when the valve was two- 
thirds shut the sluice stopped, and the 
sailor, thinking it was closed, left it. 

The captain then ordered water to be 
pumped out, and his orders to that 
effect are noted on the log. But the 
valve was open, and the water con¬ 
tinued to pour in and the submarine 
to sink deeper. 

Then the turbine was set working, 
but under the pressure of the water six 
holes were torn in the sides of the 
“Lutin,” the accumulators were para¬ 
lyzed, and the wretched sailors worked 
feverishly in an inky darkness, broken 
now and again by a flash, as one short 
circuit after another occurred. In the 
dark the men felt their way to the com¬ 
partment forward, for the turbine in 
the stern would not hold its own 
against the inrush of water. They 
reached the forward compartment, 
closed the partition, and fought fever¬ 
ishly for life. 

Then the lead weights of the fore 
part were set free, and the tfk Lutin” 
made a suaden leap above the surface 
of the water. The sailors on board the 
“Iskeul” saw her leap out of the water 
prow upwards, like a dolphin at play, 
and plunge down again for the last 
time. 


The sailors on board the fated ship 
tore their shirts and clothes, and in 
their frantic fight for life tried to stop 
all openings until the “Iskeul” should 
bring help. 

It was exactly 10 :30 when the water 
stopped the clock in the stern. The 
clock in the tower stopped at 11:25. 
For nearly an hour the fourteen sailors 
must have waited for the help which 
did not come, and then they made one 
last desperate bid for safety. They 
opened the hood (capot), but the water 
rushed in like a mill sluice, and all 
was over. 

The cause of the disaster is believed 
to have been a little stone the size of a 
walnut, which became fixed in the valve 
and prevented it from closing properly. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

DOMESTIC ALCOHOL HEATERS 


Now that the denatured alcohol bill 
has become effective we may expect 
American manufacturers will not be 
long in putting on the market many 
of the household conveniences which 



have been in general use in Germany 
for years. There a large assortment 
of heaters, cookers, lamps and other 
household articles are considered in¬ 
dispensable. Fig. 1 shows a German 
flatiron with alcohol burner, and Fig. 
2 is an alcohol burner for roasting 
coffee. 

-» ♦ -♦-— 

Smoking pipes made from the curved 
stem of the calabash are said to give a 
pleasing softness of flavor peculiar to 
themselves. The cheaper pipes are lined 
with tin; others with meerschaum, and 
they sell from 97 cents to $62. Our 
South African consul recommends cala¬ 
bash growing and pipe manufacture as 
a profitable industry. 


















BICYCLE BOATING GREAT SPORT 


These Machines Will be Seen in Large Numbers This Year 



The Bicycle Boat is as Handy and Safe on Water as the Ordinary 
Bicycle is on Land. A Small Motor can be Easily Attached, A Hord¬ 
ing a Speed of 10 Miles an Hour. 


The bicycle boat 
which in one form 
and another has ap¬ 
peared at intervals 
during the past io 
years, seems likely to 
become quite popular 
next season. The 
ease with which a 
small gasoline motor 
can be adapted as the 
motive power, thus 
making a water “mo¬ 
torcycle, ” opens up a 
new type of outdoor 
sport which has great 
possibilities. 

A recent bicycle 
boat built by a stage 
carpenter in New 
York is shown, and 
will prove suggestive 
to any of our readers 
who wish to build 
one for themselves. 

This machine is 8 ft. 
long, 5 ft. wide, is re¬ 
versible, and weighs 
60 lb. The propeller 
is a io-in. wheel; 3 - 
bladed. Provision is 
made for a small sail 
to be carried by a 
tube attached to the 
head of the frame. 

This boat will be 
equipped with power and exhibited at 
the sportsmen’s -show in New York. 

The pontoons are of galvanized 


iron which can be made at any tin- 
shop ; those in the illustration are each 
4 ft. long. 

295 


/ 










296 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


OYSTER FISHING BY MACHINERY 


Instead of the tedious operation of 
manipulating the old-fashioned oyster 
tongs, which resemble two rakes 
hinged together, the shell-fish are now 



The Old and New Way 


brought up at the rate of 3,000 bu. a 
day by means of dredges. The mod¬ 
ern oyster boat shown in the illustra¬ 
tion is equipped with four dredges 
operated by a 100 -hp. gasoline engine, 
which is also used for propelling the 
boat when not running the dredges. 
The boat has a carrying capacity of 
3,500 bu. of oysters. 

- ♦ ♦-■ 

RAILROAD AUTOMOBILE TRIP 


Chas. J. Glidden with his wife and 
party of friends are making the trip 



from Chicago to the City of Mexico 
on railroad tracks, his auto having 
been equipped with heavy flanged iron 
wheels. The machine will, of course, 
furnish its own power, and the car 
will run as the second section of a 
through passenger train under orders 
from the train dispatchers. Two 
years ago Mr. Glidden made the trip 
from Chicago to the Pacific coast in 
the same manner and found no diffi¬ 
culty in keeping up with the passen¬ 
ger train ahead. The steering gear 
is fastened, as the flanges guide the 
car. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

OIL BURNER FOR RANGES 


Cy means of a new device oil and 
water can be burned as fuel for cook 
stoves. The plan includes a tank di¬ 
vided into two compartments; one of 
which contains the oil, the other 
water. Small pipes lead to the burn- 



OiI=Water Burner 


ers in the stove. The oil pipe is first 
opened quickly, heating the vaporizer 
in which the oil and water are con¬ 
verted into gases and mixed. An in¬ 
tense heat is produced which can be 
regulated as desired. The process is 
perfectly safe and can easily be ap¬ 
plied to any stove. 


Auto Leaving Chicago 























ENCYCLOPEDIA 


297 


MOTORCYCLE RIDES A WALL 


A most remarkable 
demonstration w a s 
made on a race track 
in Paris where two 
motorcycl e s were 
running at 50 miles 
an hour. Owing to 
an accident to one of 
the machines its rider 
was thrown, and to 
avoid running over 
him, the other rider 
turned his machine so 
suddenly that it left 
the track and climbed 
the palisade. After 
running 100 ft. with 
the rider and machine 
in a position almost 
horizontal, the mo¬ 
torcycle ran off the 
palisade and literally Motorcycle Rides on a Wall 

rode on the breasts of 

the spectators, two of whom were killed and many seriously injured. 


POSTAGE RATE SHOULD BE REDUCED; NOT RAISED 





Some personal interest, thought by many to be the express companies who would benefit 
several million dollars a year by the proposed change, has induced Congress to appoint a 
“postal commission’’ which is expected to report at the present session. The Postoffice 
Department, through Mr. Madden, recommends an increase from the present rate of 1 
cent per pound on newspapers and magazines to 4' cents per pound. Not 10 per cent of 
the publishers could pay the new rate, which means there would be a big advance in all 
subscription prices,—and the people will have to pay the bill. 

By a system of book-keeping which no business concern would tolerate, an apparent 
“deficit” is made each year, and it is proposed to make the publishers pay this. There 
is no actual deficit. The free matter carried for other branches of Government amounts 
each year (according to Postoffice Department’s own figures) to more than the “deficit.” 

The 37,000 rural free delivery routes—which have reduced insanity among farmers 40 
per cent in 10 years, and which are rapidly becoming self-sustaining—this rural delivery 
alone costs this year $36,000,000, and represents a temporary loss of more than the alleged 
“deficit,” but is worth to the nation twice its cost. 

Canada carries its newspaper mail at cent per pound within 300 miles and at y 2 
cent beyond that, and cleared $490,000 last year. 

The proposed raise in the price of the reading matter of the nation is an outrage on 
the people. It is to be hoped the “consideration of the question” will be forced to the 
root of the matter, which ought to result in an entire revolution in postal methods and 
administ ra t ion. 

We are credibly informed that on a passenger train leaving Chicago every night there 
are two express cars for which the express company pays $200 per trip. On the same 
train arc two mail cars for which the Postal Department pays $700 per trip for the same 
service and the same distance. 

That there is no actual deficit under such conditions shows how profitable are the 
present rates of postage, and that instead of a raise there should be a decrease, both in 
the letter postage and newspaper rates. 

The people do not ask for the change. 

Then who does? 


* 









298 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



11 o-Con Locomotive 

“Battleship” type 
for F>eavy through freight Service 


PASSING OF THE WOODEN 
FREIGHT CAR 


And the Wooden Passenger Coach Should Go 

With It 


The statement is made that owing 
to the scarcity and consequent high 
price of lumber, the wooden freight 
car being turned out at contract shops 
is greatly inferior in quality to those 
of a few years ago. The wood is full 
of sap and before the car really gets 
into service posts and boards show 
shrinkage. The Railway Age says: 

“Even the paint on a modern box 
car is a fugitive mixture of mineral 
pigment and gasoline, slushed on with 
a wide brush and soon to evaporate 
and leave a dry powder to be washed 
off by the rain. The soft wood when 
left unprotected will more rapidly de¬ 
cay unless it receives a better cover¬ 
ing at the home shop. 

“The manager who considers the 
purchase of wooden cars, on account 
of a slender appropriation and the de¬ 
sire to have as large an equipment as 
possible, must reckon with the disad¬ 
vantages above mentioned if he builds 


for the future. The wooden car is 
constantly growing poorer in quality 
and the average life will be much less 
than that indicated by figures ob¬ 
tained from the cars in use prior to 
the age of steel.” 

The years of the wooden passenger 
car are likewise numbered. Hundreds 
of passenger cars are in service to¬ 
day which in a wreck would crush 
like eggshells and burn like tinder 
just as some of them did on Novem¬ 
ber 12 on the Baltimore & Ohio rail¬ 
road. While the collision was due to 
inexcusable carelessness, which the 
use of steel cars would not have pre¬ 
vented, no one will believe that the 
ioo or more victims who were pinned 
down by timbers and slowly roasted 
to death would have lost their lives in 
a modern steel car. There might 
have been some broken limbs, but a 
steel car never cremated anybody. 
Cities prohibit the use of bad boilers 
and stop the operation of dangerous 
passenger elevators, and in other 
proper ways protect the public, and it 
is not expecting too much that before 
a great while the Federal Government 
will make the penalties for using 









encyclopedia 


299 


rickety old passenger cars so severe 
that railway officials will not then risk 
their own liberty, nor the lives of the 
public as at present. 

Certain trains on some of the better 
roads are now made up of cars in 


which the coaches are nearly as safe 
. as the heavy sleepers, but on occa¬ 
sion the best of them run out old 
traps that are ready to fall to pieces, 
and with some the offense is an hour¬ 
ly one every day in the year. 


MAGAZINE FOR THE BLIND 


Nearly 1,000 books, with editions 
which total 256,000 volumes, have 
been printed in raised letters for the 
blind by the Moon Society of Lon¬ 
don, established in 1847. The books 
include bibles, poetry, biography, his¬ 
tory and text books, issued in 400 lan¬ 
guages. The Moon Society has 
branch free circulating libraries in 
Great Britain and its possessions— 
which last year loaned 100,000 vol¬ 
umes—and in this country in New 


with ink, a special embossing press is 
employed, a process necessarily some¬ 
what slow and painstaking. The let¬ 
ters are 34 in. high and raised about 
1 /16 of an inch, with plenty of space 
between the lines, which instead of 
all reading from left to right, weave 
back and forth. All titles, and the 
first line of each article, and after 
that every other line reads from left 
to right: the other lines from right 
to left. The large parentheses at the 



% 


Reduced Reproduction of Fart of Page of Moon’s Magazine. Translation of First Three Lines 

Reads as Follows: 


RIP VAN WINKLE . . 

A POSTHUMOUS WRITING OF DIEDR1CH KNICKER 
. . GNIVRI NOTGNIHSAW YB REKCOB 


York, Boston, Cincinnati, Chicago, 
Philadelphia, Washington and Sac¬ 
ramento. 

Two years ago the late Dr. Wm. 
Moon, founder of the society, and 
himself blind for 70 years, started a 
monthly magazine for the blind, the 
pages being 11 in. by 13 in., with a 
table of contents on the front cover. 
This magazine is now conducted by 
his daughter, Miss Moon, and edited 
by his son, Dr. R. C. Moon of Phila¬ 
delphia, Pa. 

Instead of printing from the type 


ends of lines guide the finger to the 
line below. 

A similar monthly magazine will 
shortly be issued in this country, un¬ 
der the direction of Walter G. 
Holmes, of New York City, neces¬ 
sary funds having been donated bv 
Mrs. Wm. Ziegler. The magazine 
will be sent free on request to any 
blind person who can read the raised 
letters. Those who cannot read will 
be sent free alphabets and instruc¬ 
tions, from which they can quickly 
learn, if apt. 






300 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


PROPOSED NEW 





M- 

FOOT 

PATH 


-/ 5 *-- -24 - 


PUBLIC ROAD 
OPEN TO ANIMAL 
TRAFFIC ORLY 


GENERAL AUTO TRAFFIC ONLY 
GOING ONE WAY 




- /S : - 

COMMERCIAL AUTO& 
TRAFFIC ONLY 
GOING ONE WAY f 
m 


CITY ROADWAY 




H-- Y6- - 

COMMERCIAL AUTO 
TRAFFIC ONLY 
GOING ONE WAY 


t 


GENERAL AUTO TRAFFIC ONLY 
GOING ONE W.AY 



-i---»)+- 16 ' - 

PUBLIC ROAD Y OOT 
OPEN TO ANIMAL \PAJH 
TRAFFIC ONLY 


Cross Section of Commercial Roadway 



There Are Six Distinct Roads 

LARGE CONSTRUCTIONS COST 
LIVES 


The construction of any large en¬ 
gineering undertaking, such as tall 
buildings, large dams, railroads, etc., 
includes as one of the costs a definite 
loss of human lives. In other words 
when a big skyscraper is planned the 
engineers can reckon the number of 
lives it will probably cost while the 
building is yet on paper. During the 
past year in Chicago alone 34 work¬ 
men have been killed while engaged 
in erecting large buildings, and 113 
more were seriously injured. Danger 
lurks all along the line, and the death- 
causes ranged from a bucket falling 
on a man at the bottom of a founda¬ 
tion caisson 100 ft. deep, to falls from 
the top of the same building to the 
street, a drop of from 200 ft. to 300 ft. 

Eiffel, of tower fame, declares the 
average death loss is one life to each 
$250,000 of cost of the construction. 


A plan for a commer¬ 
cial highway is proposed 
along the lines shown in 
the illustration. 

There are six distinct 
roadways: two for ani¬ 
mal traffic, two for gen¬ 
eral auto traffic, and two 
for commercial auto¬ 
traffic. The three ave¬ 
nues on each side are for 
travel in one direction 
only, the other three for 
use in the opposite direc¬ 
tion. Pedestrians use 
sidewalk on extreme out¬ 
side. 

Electric light poles to 
be placed in the middle, and each ave¬ 
nue separated from the next by a con¬ 
crete curb. The extreme width of 
street is 120 ft. including footpaths. 
The design is copyrighted by H. D. 
and F. P. Layman. 

-- » ♦ ♦- 

SUBMARINE “LUTIN” RAISED 


I he ill-fated French submarine, 
“Lutin,” which sank in 150 ft. of 
water, has been raised, and the bodies 
of the crew of fourteen, recovered. 
A floating dry dock was lowered be¬ 
low the water line, and the submarine 
attached by heavy chains. The dock 
was then raised by emptying her 
water-tanks, and dock and submarine 
towed into port. 

An English inventor now offers a 
detachable compartment in which sev¬ 
eral persons could escape, if the sub¬ 
marine is fortunate enough to land on 
the bottom in such a position that the 
compartment can be released. 






























encyclopedia 


301 



The great typhoon of September 18, 1906, at Hong Kong was remarkable as the only one 
on record which came without warning. Thousands of lives were loct, while the money loss 
ran into millions, says the Illustrated London News. The vessel at the top is the British 
vessel “Phoenix”; the other wreck shows the remains of the French destroyer “Fronde.’* 


— - - .. — . .... > 

SAWED STEEL BAR WITH YARN 


What the drop of water does to the 
hardest stone is only a circumstance 
to what a thread of yarn can accom¬ 
plish. Major McClaughry, warden 
of the Federal prison at Ft. Leaven¬ 
worth once found a prisoner who was 
supposed to be pounding stone, work¬ 
ing away at one of the bars to an out¬ 
side window. The man finally ad¬ 
mitted what he was doing and was in¬ 
duced to give a demonstration. 

A grating of the same description 


was placed in his cell and a guard sta~ 
tioned over him to exact the proof of 
the statement. With the limestone 
dust and silicate from the stone pile, 
the yarn from his sock and a little 
water this man cut the Bessemer steel 
bar in eighteen working hours. With 
some fine emery, a chalk line, and two 
wooden handholds to save hie fingers 
he made the other clean cut of the bar 
in five hours, proving the matter to 
the guard’s satisfaction. 

















302 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


UTILITY OF THE TELEPHONE 


Of all the applications of electricity 
the telephone is most used by the peo¬ 
ple. While the telegraph cannot now 
be spared, the masses use it only in 



Jeweled Telephone Used by Queen of Spain 


emergencies where the mails are too 
slow. The telephone is in the home 
ar.d much of its service is common¬ 
place, though useful. The latest phase 
is the discussion by the Roman Cath¬ 
olic clergy as to the propriety of em¬ 
ploying the telephone for the recep¬ 
tion of confessions where conditions 
prevent the member from coming in 
person to the priest. 

» ■-♦—•—o- 

New Fruit Paring Knife 


The latest in a fruit knife for table 
use is a radical change from the time- 



honored style. The improved form 
will cut twice as fast and twice as thin 
as an ordinary knife. It operates on 
the principle of a safety razor. For 
use in preparing vegetables and fruit 
for cooking it is said to be a great 
saver in both time and material. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

CAPE TO CAIRO TELEGRAPH 


The longest telegraph line in the 
world, the idea of the late Cecil 
Rhodes, lacks less than i,ooo miles of 
completion. The distance is 5,600 
miles. Through jungles, across des¬ 
erts, over vast chasms, in the face of 
the most difficult obstacles engineers 
have ever encountered, the work has 
been carried on for eight years. Part 
of the gap, about 400 miles, is through 
jungles where no white man has ever 
penetrated, and at present is acknowl¬ 
edged as too difficult to cross. The 
gap will be worked by wireless and 



Building the Line 

the rate over the entire line will be 
only 25 cents per word. 

For hundreds of miles wooden poles 
were destroyed by insects and hollow 
iron poles weighing 160 lb. had to be 
substituted. Even these are frequent¬ 
ly broken by elephants rubbing against 
them. Among some of the African 
tribes small pieces of wire pass for 
money which is another cause of trou¬ 
ble. Wild beasts, savages, serpents 
and pestilence have joined forces to 
hold back the enterprise, but each in 
turn has been overcome. 


Cuts Very Fast 


















encyclopedia 


303 


JUNK TOOL STORES 



Secondhand Tool Stores, Chicago 


In every large city will be found 
one or more places where second¬ 
hand or junk tools are sold. Tools 
of all descriptions, adapted to every 
branch of mechanics, can be bought 


at prices ranging from i cent up; a 
good sized paint brush brings 2 cents, 
a carpenter’s hammer 5 cents, a pick 
or shovel 25 cents, a rip saw 10 cents, 
and so on. The average price is less 












304 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


than one-tenth what the new article 
would cost at a hardware store, and 
often just as useful as a new one. 
Some of the stuff in the motley collec- 



“A Paint Brush, 2 Cents” 


tion comes from unredeemed pawns, 
some from junk dealers and a good 
deal from parties of whom “no ques¬ 
tions are asked.” Frequently quite 
valuable tools and instruments can 
be had for a mere song, as the most 
of the customers want the tools of 
ordinary use requiring less skill to 
handle. 

-♦ — » ♦——- 

INVALID’S MOTOR CHAIR 


Invalids who are able to go out of 
doors, and who have the use of their 
hands, will be interested in the latest 
novelty, the motor chair. 



Comfort and Ease of Operation 


It is in reality a motor tricycle and 
is designed for the use of cripples or 
invalids who are not incapacitated 


from taking care of the machine. 
Power and speed necessarily have 
been subordinated to the demands of 
comfort and from the side its appear¬ 
ance differs very slightly from that of 
the ordinary wheeled chair. Liberal 
sized pneumatic tires are used on the 
rear wheels, which are about 28 in. 
in diameter, but the steering wheel is 
of such diminutive size that any at¬ 
tempt to speed the machine would re¬ 
sult disastrously. This wheel has a 
small solid rubber tire. 

The motive power consists of a 4 / 4 - 
hp. air-cooled gas engine, mounted on 
the rear axle at an angle tilted back¬ 
ward from the vertical. Instead of 
driving directly to the axle or driving 
• wheels, however, a variable speed 
gear, affording a range of 5 to 15 
miles an hour, is interposed. A spe¬ 
cial form of foot brake acting directly 
on the motor shaft is provided. 

It is a French invention not yet on 
the American market. Some enter¬ 
prising Yankee would doubtless do 
well with such a specialty. Just be¬ 
fore the St. Louis exposition, a simi¬ 
lar chair motor, only operated by 
storage battery, for carrying two pas¬ 
sengers, was proposed and a few were 
constructed. We published a picture 
of the chair and several hundred in¬ 
quiries were received indicating a sur¬ 
prising interest in the device. The 
company seeking the concession, how¬ 
ever, failed to carry out its plans. 
-»-♦ ♦- 

PAPER FROM EGYPTIAN PAPY= 

RUS 


A London syndicate will have 100,- 
000 tons of Egyptian papyrus plant 
ready to ship to its paper mills within 
the next six months. This revives an 
industry which has been extinct for 
over 1,000 years. A long search 
finally located a few plants in Pales¬ 
tine which were transplanted into 
Egypt and cultivated. The twentieth 
century seems to find frequent occa¬ 
sion to learn from the vast treasure 
house of knowledge of that remark- 
able people. 















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


305 



400,000=TON BROADSIDE 


Most Terrific Discharge Ever Made 


The “Dreadnaught” has had her 
.ultimate test and withstood the shock. 
The trial involved firing a broadside 
from the eight 12-in. guns, as pic¬ 
tured in the illustration. These guns 
are 53 ft. long; 42 men can stand 


Broadside by English Battleship “Cornwallis” 


shoulder to shoulder on one of them, 
from breech to muzzle. Each shell 
weighed 850 lb. and left the gun at a 
speed of 5 miles a second. Could this 
rate of travel be maintained the shell 
would travel from London to New 
York in 90 minutes, and go around 
the world in less than 13 hours. 

The energy generated by these guns 
is estimated to be 50,000 tons for 
each gun, at the muzzle ; or for the 
broadside of 8 pieces a total of 400,- 
000 tons. The discharge caused the 
‘‘Dreadnaught” to move sideways a 
distance greater than her own beam, 
and to list heavily, while the vacuum 
produced temporary cyclones around 
each gun. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

A grand boulevard, 10 miles in 
length, leading from the gates of Paris 
to St. Germain, is planned to be con¬ 
structed in Paris at a cost of $2,000,- 
000. There will be an electric rail¬ 
way under the avenue, a drive on one 
side, a motor car track on the other, 
two cycling tracks and two footpaths. 


TELEPHONE OVER THE MIS¬ 
SOURI 


Owing to the constantly changing 
bottom of the Missouri river a cable 
is not considered practical and the 
telephone wires connecting Council 
Bluffs and Omaha are suspended from 
a steel tower on each bank, no ft. 
high. These towers are built of gal¬ 
vanized iron and each will sustain a 
strain of 20 tons. The guy ropes are 
carried back 700 ft. and anchored to 

heavy concrete blocks. 

-» ♦ - ♦- 

ALCOHOL FIRE RISK SMALL 


Very little fire risk is involved in 
the handling and use of denatured 
alcohol. The benzine used will be a 
hydrocarbon obtained either from 
petroleum or coal tar having a specific 
gravity of not less than 8.00 and a 
boiling point of not less than 150° C., 
and will be no more dangerous in 
point of fire risk than the alcohol 
itself. 


























306 


encyclopedia 


MOVED TALL LIGHTHOUSE BY BOAT 



Lighthouse Partly on Boat 

CONDUITS FOR HIGH VOLTAGE 
TRANSMISSION 


One of the problems which is en¬ 
gaging the study of electrical engi¬ 
neers is the solution of a suitable 
cable and conduit necessary for high 
voltage transmission. At present 
practically all the high voltage lines 
are carried in the air, involving very 
costly construction, as no chances 
must be taken on the lines going down 
in a storm. There are some trans¬ 
mission conduits in cities carrying 
voltages up to 10,000, it is true, but 
the 25,000 to 60,000 volt lines are still 
in the air, with serious losses from 
leakage. The Electrical Review says 
“the insulation thought to promise 
best for such cables is one consisting 
of cloth tape properly impregnated 
with some good compound.” 


which the range light 
stood. Whether the 
towering structure could be held 
steadily on the moving vessel, or 
would overbalance and topple into the 
water, was an anxious question. 
Once on the lighter, however, it was 
slowly moved along to the new site 
on the end of a concrete pier. Then 
it was again blocked up and moved 
on rollers to place, uninjured in any 
respect. 

- »-♦ ♦-■ 

UNITED STATES COPPER PRO¬ 
DUCTION 


In 1845 all the copper produced in 
this country aggregated a scant 100 
tons; for 1905 we produced over 
901,000,000 lb.—one of the greatest 
industries in the world. Of this pio- 
duction China bought 80,000,000 lb. 
The Lake Superior mines yielded 


Twelve men in four hours’ time 
moved the 65-ft. 65-ton range light¬ 
house at the Ashtabula, Ohio, harbor 
a distance of 750 ft. recently, to ac¬ 
commodate improvements being made 
by the Pennsylvania Railroad Com¬ 
pany. The lighthouse is a frame 
structure covered with metal, 18 ft. 
square at the base, 65 ft. high and of 
a total weight of 65 tons, and prior 
to moving it was not 
dismantled at all. 

Jacks were placed un¬ 
der the building and, as 
it was raised, four guy 
ropes were used to 
steady it. After being 
suitably blocked up it 
was next placed on 
rollers and by alternate- 
ly moving the building 
and loosening and tight¬ 
ening the guy ropes, it 
was soon deposited on 
a lighter which lay in 
the main river right 
next to the dock on 





















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


307 



25.5 per cent; Montana, 34.9 per 
cent, and Arizona 26.2 per cent. The 
Arizona production will surprise 
many of our readers. 

The combined world’s production 
of 1905 was 701,252 tons, of which 
North America furnished 502,822 
tons. 

The United States output for 1906 
is estimated to show an increase of 
70,000,000 lb. over the preceding year. 

-»-♦- ♦- 

The first ferry line to cross the 
open sea will be established on the 
Baltic betwen Germany and Sweden. 
The distance of 70 miles will be cov¬ 
ered in four hours and the boats will 
carry an entire train. 

-♦ • ♦- 

THE ROTARY IS KING 


This is the season when those rail¬ 
roads which cross the mountains in 
northern latitudes have their annual 
battle against snow. The invention 
of the rotary snow plow has reduced 
snow blockades from days to hours, 
and incidentally relieved the workmen 
of their hardest task of the entire 


year. 

The rotary rapidly eats its way 
through a drift that formerly had to 
be cut out in blocks, being too hard 
to shovel. The power for driving the 
“fan” is carried in the same car, but 
motive power is supplied by a string 
of big locomotives which push it for¬ 
ward. The illustration shows one of 
the largest rotaries ever built, high up 
in the Rockies. 






TO DAM THE SUSQUEHANNA 


A great army of workers, 2,500 of 
them, are working to throw the great¬ 
est dam in this country, and one of 
the largest in the world, across 
the swift waters of the Susquehanna 
river. The power station, which will 
use the water power, will at the time 
of its completion this year, be the 
largest generating station of its kind 
in the world, the output being 100,000 
hp., which is greater than the big plant 
at Niagara. 

Current at high tension will be 
transmitted to Baltimore, 40 miles 
away; Philadelphia, 60 miles; Wil¬ 
mington, 45 miles; York, 25 miles, 
and Lancaster, 18 miles. The enter¬ 
prise will cost $10,000,000. 

The dam will be 3,000 ft. long, from 
40 ft. to 75 ft. high, and 68 ft. wide 
at the base. It will be one vast solid 


Resting After a Hard Run 




















308 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


block of concrete, of which 400,000 
yds. will be used. The concrete is be¬ 
ing manufactured at the work. A 
coffer dam already extends from one 
shore, laying bare a section of river 
bed which is being stripped to get 
down to solid work into which the 
dam will be anchored. In places the 
river is 60 ft. deep. 

When completed, the dam will en¬ 
large the river at that point to a lake 
10 miles long, a mile wide, having an 
average depth of 30 ft. A good sized 
town has sprung into existence, with 

hotels, hospitals and stores. 

-♦ ♦ ♦-- 

NEW THEORY WHY WOOD 
WARPS 


A new theory is advanced by hard¬ 
wood experts as to why wood which 
has been carefully kiln-dried, often 
warps. It is now believed that when 
the sap is dried out various foreign 
substances other than turpentine, 
pitch, etc., remain in a more or less 
solid state; and when the wood is 
moistened these substances absorb 
water, and swelling, cause warping. 
A process is announced for removing 


Built Entirely of Steel 

the objectionable substances, the in¬ 
ventor claiming a piece of oak so 
treated can be soaked in water all 

night without swelling perceptibly. 

-♦ • ♦ - — 

Salton Sea, controlled at last by 
dams and soon to dry up, has changed 
the climate of its locality completely. 
What once was a desert is now a 
green country, refreshed by frequent 
rainfalls. The people are trying to 
have the sea preserved. 


HOLDING DOWN A 40=STORY 
BUILDING 


A 40-story building, such as is now 
erecting in New York, would seem to 
be heavy enough to 
hold itself down, and so 
it would be but for the 
terrible wind pressure. 
To counteract this force 
great steel rods, 3^2 in. 
in diameter and sections 
of about 10 ft. each, are 
carried down 50 ft. into 
the cement foundations. 
The rods are anchored 
by plates and at the top 
converge in a single 
hollow column which 
extends to the top of the 
building. The foundations for a 40- 
story building are very costly, and 
twice as great as for a 20-story 
structure. 

-»--- ♦- 

STEEL HOUSE BOAT 


In a sheltered nook on the Chicago 
river, in the heart of the business sec¬ 
tion of the city, is anchored a new and 
novel type of house 
boat. The boat, which 
is the one at the left 
hand side of the illus¬ 
tration, is built entirely 
of steel, and the owner 
is a mechanic employed 
at a lighting plant front¬ 
ing on the river. His 
spare time and money 
are put into the work of 
constructing the boat, 
the hull of which is now finished. 
The interior is being fitted up into 
several compartments, and is already 
occupied by the owner as a resi¬ 
dence. Some day when the craft is 
finished he will float down to the Gulf 
of Mexico. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

Experiments in Holland disclosed 
the fact that a parapet of sand backed 
by a wall of concrete increased the 
resistance to a shell about 20 per cent. 




I 



































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


309 


TWO BLIND MEN BUILD A HOUSE 


Doing all the Carpenter Work Without Assistance 


Two totally blind men have built a 
house for themselves at Berkeley, Cal., 
doing all the carpenter work them¬ 
selves without any assistance what¬ 
ever. The event is one of the most re¬ 
markable accomplishments in building. 
Neither of the men will ever see the 
sightly structure they have raised. 

It is a coincidence that both these 
men are named Joseph—Joseph Brown 
and Joseph Martinez. The house is 
of the popular bungalow type, IJ -2 


have closely followed the square and 
plumb—sawing accurately to the line 
and driving straight home every 
nail. Each angle is perfect; the 
vertical and horizontal parts of 
the building are very accurate— 
surprisingly so. How sightless work¬ 
men could accomplish such per¬ 
fect mechanical results seems lit¬ 
tle short of marvelous. From day 
to day the work has been curiously 
watched by crowds including many 



The Blind Builders and the House They are Building 


stories high, and constructed entirely 
of wood. It is 18 ft. wide by 25 ft. 
long. As the builders are sightless, 
the work necessarily progressed slow¬ 
ly. From early morning until fre¬ 
quently long after sunset the two men 
toiled patiently at their task. The 
shades of night did not hinder the 
work, for noonday and midnight are 
equally dark to them, and out of the 
blackness came the song of the saw 
and the blows of hammer to passers- 
by, who heard but saw no workmen. 

The bungalow presents a very neat 
and attractive appearance, all the work 
having been performed along strictly 
mechanical lines. 

Though totally blind these builders 


carpenters. The general work is pro¬ 
nounced as good as that performed 
by many builders who are blessed 
with perfect eyesight. These sightless 
workmen were not even afraid to 
climb the ladders when constructing 
the roof. In all the work the build¬ 
ers have received no assistance or 
suggestions. 

* * * 

Brown and Martinez were not blind 
from their birth, but were deprived 
of their sight many years ago. They 
were door to door pedlars for many 
years, and managed in the course of 
time to accumulate snug sums of 
money that were wisely deposited in 
bank. At the time of the great fire 



















































310 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


in San Francisco these men lost ev¬ 
erything save their little bank ac¬ 
counts. Recently they pooled their 
holdings, purchased a small lot in 
Berkeley, and some lumber. They 
then set to work resolutely and have 
built themselves a house. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

MIRROR FOR AUTOMOBILES 


The latest accessory for the auto¬ 
mobile is a small mirror set in a strong 
frame and suitably protected at the 



“Looking Backward” 


back, and placed where the driver can 
watch it. The mirror enables the oc¬ 
cupants of a car to see what is com¬ 
ing from behind without turning the 
head 

-♦- 

CAR FOR INVALIDS 


taken seriously ill while on the train 
he can be removed to the car and re¬ 
ceive medical assistance without de¬ 
lay. Such a car, or at least a part of 
one car, would seem to be an im¬ 
provement on our present overland 
trains. 

-♦- 

WORKS TO SAVE STEEL FROM 

RUINS 


Sixty million pounds of iron and 
steel, taken from the ruins of San 
Francisco, are to be melted into ingots 
during the next two years and the 
recovery of this “junk” will mark the 
creation of a new industry. A great 
plant with enormous furnaces is be¬ 
ing constructed on the Pacific Coast 
and a year’s supply—50,000 tons—of 
the wrecked girders and beams is be¬ 
ing laid in. About 1,000 men will be 
employed. 

One of the difficult problems of 
San Francisco’s reconstruction has 
been how to get rid of the twisted 
steel and iron skeletons that remained. 
The new industry solves the problem 
and opens up other possibilities for 
utilizing waste. 


The fire loss in United States and 
Canada for October was $13,872,000; 
for 10 months of 1906, $414,460,000. 


A car for the exclusive 
trse of invalids and their 
attendants is a part of the 
regular equipment of the 
Hungarian State Rail- 
ways, which are operated 
by the government. These 
cars were designed and 
built with a special view to 
comfort and privacy. The 
illustration from Locomo¬ 
tive, London, gives an idea 
of the interior of one of 
these compartments, of 
which there are several in 
a car. One room is 
equipped as a dispensary. 
Should a passenger be 



Compartment in Invalid’s Car 


















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


311 



GERMAN FIRST-CLASS BATTLESHIP “ DEUTSCHLAND ”; 13,200 tons; I 6,890-1. H. P.; speed 
18.85 knots. Armor Protection:—Water-line belt, 9.75-in. Krupp steel amidships tapering to 4-in. at 
ends; side above belt, 8-in.; main barbettes and turrets, ll-in.; casemates and battery, 6.75-in ; 
armored deck, 3-in. Armament:—Four ll-in. 40-cal. guns; fourteen 6.7-in. 40-cal.; twenty 24-pdr.; 
four l-pdr.; and four machine guns. Six submerged torpedo tubes.—Courtesy Journal U. S. Artillery 
Association. 


CUTTING STEEL BY MEANS OF 

HEAT 


In most operations there are ex¬ 
tremes to be avoided and a happy 
medium to be determined, if possible, 
and adopted, but in cutting steel with 
circular saws there seems to be no 
happy medium. If a saw is given a 
cutting speed of 20 to 25 ft. a minute 
it will cut the steel without any diffi¬ 
culty, or if the same saw is given a 
speed of 2 miles a minute it will also 
cut the steel successfully, but at an 
intermediate speed, such as 500 ft., it 
will not cut well at all. 

In the first case, where the slow 
speed is used, the saw cuts the steel 
by taking off small shavings like any 
ordinary cutting tool, while with the 
high speed the steel becomes red hot 
and is practically torn through, but 
with the intermediate speed the fric¬ 
tion is not sufficient to produce the 
necessary heat before the saw is 
broken. 

In cutting large sections of steel, 
such as large I-beams and heavy 
shafting, a soft steel saw without teeth 


is sometimes used. This revolves at 
a very high speed and is literally 
pushed through the metal, which be¬ 
comes red hot. It is the common 
practice, however, to first make a 
number of nicks on the circumfer¬ 
ence with a cold chisel. 

Another method of cutting steel, 
which has been used successfully for 
cutting pipe, was recently patented 
in this country by a Belgian engineer. 
The process consists in first heating 
the metal by means of an oxv-hydro- 
gen flame and then cutting it by a 
small stream of oxygen gas, which 
unites with the steel and forms a 
fusible oxide; in this condition it 
flows freely from the cut. 

The operation is made continuous 
by revolving the pipe and employing 
two jets; one containing oxygen and 
hydrogen and the other containing 
pure oxygen, which follows close in 
the path of the former. The oxy-hy- 
drogen flame raises the metal to a 
red heat and the following stream of 
oxygen then makes the cut. It is said 
that the cut is fully as smooth as that 
made by a saw and is only 1/100 of 
an inch wide. 
















312 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



CEMENT HOUSES IN ONE PIECE 

«V . 

—————— 

Walls, Floors, Partitions, Mantels and Roofs, All 

Cement 


In a recent issue of this magazine 
Thomas A. Edison predicted the cast¬ 
ing in molds with cement of a quite 
e 1 a b o r ate residence. 

The plan has already 
been put into practice 
in the construction of 
50 two-story cottages 
in Pittsburg, where the 
process is called the 
“monocast” s y s t e m. 

The foundations, walls, 
floors, partitions and 
roof are all cement. 

The Cement Era says 
“floor, walls and ceil¬ 
ings are all in one 
piece; grates are built 
into every room, and 
mantels are molded in on the walls. 
Shelving and cabinets are built in and 
sinks, bath and wash tubs are made 
in the house better than can be bought 
at any plumber’s; all of .concrete.” 

The only wood is in the doors and 
window frames, and a local architect 
is already taking out patents on ce¬ 
ment doors and window frames. The 
doors are no thicker than the ordinary 
wooden door, but little heavier, and 
are immune to kicks from the small 
boy. 

The forms are made of cheap cull 
lumber and can be used over and 
over again. 

% 

-+ ♦ ♦- 

STEEL DREDGES TO WORK THE 

YUKON 


A mammoth dredge with capacity 
for handling 2,500 cu. yd. of material 
daily is now on its way into the 
Yukon territory. It will take the 
dredge 90 days to reach its destina¬ 
tion and by the time it arrives its cost 
will approximate $140,000. Manga¬ 
nese steel, which is to cast iron in 
strength as ten to one, has been used 
in the construction throughout and 


the dredge is said to be a marvel. 

A number of dredges are now in 
successful operation along the upper 
Yukon. The initial cost, because of 
the difficulties of transportation into 
the frozen north, is almost prohibitive, 
but once on the ground the machines 
rapidly pay for themselves. 


Cement is taking the place of adobe 
in many cities where adobe has been 
the building material for centuries. 

-» ♦ ♦-- 

TOO DAMP FOR THE DIVER 




















ENCYCL0P3DIA 


313 




NOTABLE FOREIGN LOCOMOTIVES==Suburban Tank Locomotive, Eastern Railway of France. These 

engines work local trains on the lines out of Paris 


ONLY HIGH EXPLOSIVES SUITABLE TO CHECK 

CONFLAGRATIONS 


By P. H. Shaughnessy, Chief San Francisco Fire Department 


Dynamite was used in great quan¬ 
tity to subdue the flames that swept 
over the city. In the hands of com- 
petent persons the explosive is a val¬ 
uable auxiliary in fighting fire when 
other means fail. Our department 
gained valuable experience in the 
handling of .dynamite, and I trust that 
other departments may profit by our 
observations. In the first place, dy¬ 
namite should be stored in an isolated 
spot and under the control of the 
United States Army. It should 
never be brought into use until or¬ 
dered by the chief of the fire depart¬ 
ment, and then it should be handled 
by trained men, preferably soldiers, 
commanded by competent officers. 
Great harm was done during the first 
days of the fire by the indiscriminate 
use of black powder. It developed 
that when black powder was exploded 
it threw off a combustion that ignited 
all woodwork with which it came in 
contact, thus starting additional fires. 
Giant powder, made of nitro-glycer- 
ine, was also used with the same re¬ 
sults. On the third day of the con¬ 


flagration 75 per cent dynamite, in 
stick form, was used with splendid 
results, as there was no combustion, 
and the buildings were leveled with¬ 
out danger. I would therefore rec¬ 
ommend the use of stick dynamite, 
gun cotton or other truly high explo¬ 
sives that throw off no combustion, 
as the only means of checking a tre¬ 
mendous fire when water is not ob¬ 
tainable, as it levels a building to 
where you can deliver water to con¬ 
trol the flames of such buildings of 
frame or brick of ordinary construc¬ 
tion, containing wooden floor joints 
and wooden dividing partitions. I 
would not recommend dynamite to 
level buildings of “Class A,” construc¬ 
tion which are of the skeleton type, 
with steel frame and floors riveted at 
all junction points, for the reason that 
it would take an enormous quantity 
to level a building of that construc¬ 
tion. I would further recommend 
that when dynamite is used that it 
should be exploded by electricity, as 
with the fuse system there is danger 
of not exploding when expected. 
























314 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


HIGH-SPEED EMERGENCY FIRE 

CAR 


Instead of adding more men to each 
station of its fire department, as at 
first seemed necessary, Springfield, 
Mass., has established an entirely new 
department, consisting of a 40-hp. mo¬ 
tor car and crew of eight men. 

The fire car is located at the central 
station and answers every alarm, and 
often is able to extinguish the blaze 
before the engines arrive. The car 
carries such fire¬ 
fighting equipment 
as is suitable. On 
each side of the 
front seat is fitted a 
chemical tank, fast¬ 
ened by an easily de¬ 
tachable clamp. The 
axes are carried on 
the side of the body, 
and the hand spikes 
and crowbars on the 
running board. On 
the floor of the car 
is coiled 200 ft. of 
regulation hose, and 
at the rear on the 
right side the nec¬ 
essary nozzle. Snap 
fastenings are also 
provided for carry¬ 
ing the firemen’s 
helmets, while hand 
lanterns are sus¬ 
pended and fastened 
to brackets by the 
side of the operator. 

The car is equipped 
with the regular side 
oil and tail lights, 
two gas headlights, 
and a gas searchlight fastened to 
the dash, the latter three being 
supplied by gas from a supply 
carried in a compressed form in a 
steel tank on the right side of the car. 
In addition to the hand horn a siren 
is also provided, which is operated 
electrically. Weed chains are used on 
both rear wheels, while just forward 
of the latter is provided a sand box 


with two outlets, the outlets being 
controlled by the operator. This is 
rendered necessary from the fact that 
Springfield’s streets are paved with 
wood blocks, and consequently when 
coated with mud are somewhat slip¬ 
pery. The eight men composing the 
crew were individually trained in the 
use of the car, so that each may be 
called an expert. It had been estimated 
that 20 more men were required in the 
force but the car with only eight men 
additional sufficed. 


At the Krupp works, and its ore and 
coal mines are employed 62,000 per¬ 
sons, of whom 5,000 are officials and 
clerks. 

-♦- 

The current of the Nile at the As¬ 
souan dam is so strong that a boulder 
weighing 60 tons has been dislodged 
from its bed and hurled against the 
masonry. 



This Company Answers Every Alarm 
















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


315 


SHADOWGRAPHS AND HOW TO 

MAKE THEM 


By Charles Everett Warren, M D. 


Casting about for a simple, easy, 
quick and accurate means of making 
a number of records of designs for 
bent iron patterns, I accidentally 
struck upon the following method of 
blueprinting, which is applicable to a' 
number of purposes where an outline 
is desired: 


correctly in relation to the plane of 
the board. 

To obtain a perfectly clear outline, 
without shade, make a board with an 
arrangement for tilting it at any angle, 
a ball and socket joint being preferred, 
and drive a long, slim, steel wire nail 
near one end and perfectly perpendic- 



Shadowgraphs Reduced One=Half Actual Size 


If the object to be sun printed is 
simply laid on a board over a sheet 
of ferro-prussiate paper, sensitized 
side up and held in place by common 
pins pushed into the board through 
the paper, close to the object and 
standing vertically, it may be exposed 
to the direct sunlight and a print 
taken; but there will be an effect of 
more or less shade, since the eye can¬ 
not judge the angle of sunlight 


ular to the surface. The shadow of the 
nail head will then indicate when the 
board is perpendicular to the sun’s 
rays. 

For paper I use heavy ledger stock. 
The sensitizing solution is as follows: 

A. Ferricyanide of potassium Y\ oz. 

Water . ij^oz. 

B. Citrate of iron and am¬ 

monia .150 gr. 

Water . ij^oz. 








316 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



Wine Glass and Bronze Statue==One=HaIf Size 

Dissolve each separately and mix. 
If put in an amber colored bottle it 
will keep some time. But the paper 
should be used within a day or two 
after coating. For this reason pre¬ 
pare only sufficient for present use. 

This is done in dim light, with a 
wad of cotton wool, spreading the so¬ 
lution evenly with long sweeps, the 
paper being laid on a board. It is 
then hung up in a dark place to dry. 
This, by the way, is an excellent for¬ 
mula for printing photos, if a fairly 
dense and vigorous negative is used, 
and may be of use for making post¬ 
cards if the stock is glazed; otherwise 
the solution will sink into the card. 

Expose to bright sunlight until the 
paper not covered by object is a dull 
gray for deep blue or a bronze blue 
for light blue when developed. De¬ 
velop in water, remembering that the 
full strength of color is developed by 
fairly long immersion. Rinse several 
times to insure perfect removal of all 
ferro-prussiate, or the print will not 
be permanent. Dry out the superflu¬ 
ous moisture by laying in an old news¬ 
paper and then remove to dry news¬ 
paper and dry under a weight. 

If the slight print of the pin heads 
is objectionable, cut them off with 
cutting pliers after they are in place 
or use pliers to insert them. I have 


found a thimble on the index finger 
a help, as it prevents sore fingers. Be 
sure to drive the pins firmly, and in a 
vertical position, close to the object 
to be held, as the board must be in¬ 
clined and the weight may cause the 
object to fall off if it is not securely- 
fastened. 

The preparation of the object for 
exposure may be done in a dimly 
lighted room without causing any ap¬ 
preciable effect on the objective result. 
If the object does not have a flat side, 
but tends to tilt, put bits- of cork of 
the right height under it or drive in a 
pin and cut off the head to leave it of 
sufficient height to act as a support. 

This method was originally adopted 
to copy designs of scroll work made 
from y~ in. iron tape, but it has been 
found by experiment to be applicable 
for printing cylindrical and irregular 
objects of some thickness, such as tool 
handles and the like. Hence it is an 
easy and accurate method of getting 
template prints, which may be cut ac¬ 
curately to line. 

Corrections in the blueprints or ad¬ 
ditional white lines or legends may be 
inserted by using a saturated solution 
of bicarbonate of soda as ink. If a 
little gum arabic is added to it it will 
flow better. 

Line drawings may be made by 
printing and developing in the usual 
way. Line in all the parts desired 
with waterproof black ink and when 
dry immerse the print in a solution 
of bicarbonate of soda, and the blue 
ground will disappear, leaving a black 

line drawing on a white ground. 

-♦- 

DIVER READS UNDER WATER 


To test the qualities of a submarine 
electric light a diver at Aberdeen, 
Scotland, descended 20 ft. in muddy 
water taking a newspaper and the 
light down with him. While seated 
on an anchor at the bottom of the 
harbor he read aloud for ten minutes 
to the men above, the words being 
conveyed through the telephone in his 
helmet. The paper was held 18 in. 
from the lamp. 


V 






DEVELOPMENT OF 
THE FRENCH 
BLAST FURNACE 


encyclopedia 


317 


A French writer in La 
Nature reviews the prog¬ 
ress of the iron industry 
in his country. Until 
within the past few years 
the old type furnace was 
generally employed, hav¬ 
ing a capacity of 6 to io 
tons production per day. 
Even now there are many 
of these small plants, lim¬ 
ited to an output of 24 
tons daily. 

The artist Isas por¬ 
trayed the small furnace 
with the man pointing to 
the small pile of pig iron, 
and also the m oder n 
French plant with an out¬ 
put of 700 tons per day, 
in which the product is 
represented bv . the tall 
square shaft on which a 
man is standing. In 1848 
the French produced 
500,000 tons of iron; last 
year, 5,000,000 tons. 



CARD SHUFFLER 


A machine which 
automatically shuf¬ 
fles a pack of cards 
in an instant, with 
the cards concealed 
from sight, and 
which changes the 
position of 99 out 
of every 100 cards, 
is the latest me¬ 
chanical device for 
card players. It not 
only protects the cards from injury 
but gives an absolutely “square deal" 
, shuffle. 

The machine weighs 4 lb. and at¬ 
taches in a moment to any table. It 
is about 12 in. high. 


A FIRE=PROOF BRICK 


A glass company at Monterey, Cal., 
reports the discovery of materials and 
a process of manufacture which pro¬ 
duce a remarkable brick. The chief 
materials are magnesia and silica rock, 
which when ground and mixed with 
secret ingredients rapidly hardens in 
the air, and becomes a non-conductor 
of heat, cold and sound. A sample, 2 
in. long, was exposed at one end to 
an intensely hot flame for 10 minutes 
and could then be held in the hand by 
taking hold of the other end. When 
subjected to a strong blow-pipe flame 
and suddenly plunged in cold water 
no injury was detected. It is said the 
cost of making is no greater than the 
ordinary clay brick. 



































318 ency 



SIGNAL BALLOONS 


The illustration shows one of the 
signal balloons now in use in the Ger¬ 
man army. They are not intended for 
passengers but are sent up with sig¬ 
nal flags and cones used in connection 

with a secret code. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

ELECTRICAL DEVICE TO PRE¬ 
VENT SEASICKNESS 


The terrors of a sea voyage, due to 
seasickness, are said to have been en¬ 
tirely overcome by a recent invention 
of Herr Paul Kappmeir. The accom¬ 
panying illustration, from the Amer¬ 
ican Inventor, shows a new electrical 
device as placed in position on the 
head of a patient suffering from sea¬ 
sickness. 

The inventor of this device, after 
having made numerous experiments 
and exhaustive researches, came to the 



The Electrfc Cap 


CL0PI3DIA 

conclusion that seasickness is caused 
by acute cerebral impression in com¬ 
bination with reflex irritation of cer¬ 
tain nerves in the head, which results 
in a disordered circulation and an ab¬ 
normal flow of blood from the head 
to the gastric regions. 

In order to disprove the old theory 
that seasickness is caused by the con¬ 
tents of the stomach being continually 
washed against its walls, an experi¬ 
ment was tried in which a susceptible 
patient developed all the symptoms of 
seasickness while in a perfectly sta¬ 
tionary position. This was accom¬ 
plished by means of an optical illusion, 
the rolling motion of the boat being 
simulated by moving mirrors. Thus 
by visible impressions the feeling of 
equilibrium, in the same way as in the 
initial stage of seasickness, is dis¬ 
turbed in the reflex centers, but after 
a time, and also upon subsequent repe¬ 
tition by tolerance and habit, accom¬ 
modation slowly begins, in the same 
manner that on ship-board the eye 
slowly accustoms itself to everything 
around it being in motion. 

The electric cap consists of a com¬ 
press, which produces both heat and 
pressure, thereby paralyzing the vaso¬ 
motor nerves, which control the sup¬ 
ply of blood to the head. This allows 
the normal amount of blood to flow to 
the head, thereby preventing the dizzy 
feeling and overcoming the distressing 
sensations in the stomach. 

-»-♦ ♦- 

COAL MINING IN INDIA 


India has upward of 35,000 square 
miles of coal fields. The coal is an 
excellent quality of bituminous and 
now retails at about $3 per ton. At 
present mining is conducted in a very 
crude and unscientific manner, to rem¬ 
edy which the government has opened 
a college for training native engineers. 
Many women find employment in the 
mines. 

In the capital of India the coolie 
women carry bricks and mortar on 
their heads and climb bamboo ladders 















encyclopedia 


319 


to the third and fourth stories of 
buildings as helpers to coolie masons. 
These women sweep the streets and do 
all sorts of menial labor. They carry 
on their heads burdens seemingly 
large enough to bend Tie backs of 
bullocks and donkeys. Even girls of 


8 and io years of age carry loads on 
their heads weighing 50 and more 
pounds and trudge along under the 
sun’s intense rays with the mercury 
rising to ioo° in the shade. An effort 
is being made to change these deplor¬ 
able conditions. 


-♦ - 

SOLDIERS IDENTIFIED BY FINGER PRINTS 


Lrom Birth to Death the Same Pattern and in No Two Individuals Alike 


LEFT HAND. 

6. Thumb. 

7. Index. 

8. Middle. 

9. King. 

10. Little. 

■TiJinr ^ ASS' 

mmlllMk « 

ffSl 


m 







RIGHT HAND 

. 

1. Thumb. 

2. Index. 

3 Middle. 

4. Ring. 

5 . Little. 

in 

JMl 


Jj§j 

ftj| 



LEFT HAND. 

Plain Impression of the four Angers taken simultaneously. 


RIGHT HAND. 

Plain impression of the four fingers taken simultaneously 


The finger prints of every individ¬ 
ual are distinctively and exclusively 
his very own. In eyes, nose, hair, 
even the entire face, he may so closely 
resemble some other man, as scarcely 
to be distinguished from him. In 
fact, the statement is made that 
somewhere in the world thers is al¬ 
ways a “double” for every one. But 


the patterns made by the little lines 
in the pulpy ends of "the fingers never 
conflict. Not only do these prints 
differ in men, but the lines on each of 
your ten fingers are different from 
each of the other nine fingers. The 
discovery of these facts is now em¬ 
ployed in a system of identification 
which is absolute and permits of an 





























320 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


/ 


enormous number of combinations. 
The finger print identification is an 
outgrowth of the Bertillion system, 
but has many advantages. A change 
in whiskers, the removal of a mole 
or tooth is easily accomplished and 
makes a stranger of an oldtime friend. 
Many a man has shaved his beard and 
had his own children deny his iden¬ 
tity. The color of hair, and even of 
the eyes, alters during life, as may 
one’s gestures, features and hand¬ 
writing ; but throughout an entire life 
and even after death, the little ridges 
on the finger ends alone remain true 
and unchanged to the patterns which 
only a microscope can discern on a 
baby’s hand. The War Department 
has now adopted a finger print record 
and every man who enlists has his 
record taken and sent to headquar¬ 
ters at Washington. How this is done 
and what becomes of the records is 
described in detail by Maj. J. R. Kean, 
M. D., surgeon U. S. Army, in the 
Journal of the American Medical As¬ 
sociation. 

When a man enlists a front and side 
view photograph are made of him, 
with a camera which is the same as 
used at all other recruiting stations; 
the camera in every case being sta¬ 
tioned 54 in. from the subject. This 
results in a uniform system of photo¬ 
graphs. Impressions are then made 
on paper of each of the ten fingers, one 
at a time. The finger is pressed 
against an ink pad and gently held to 
the proper column of the record sheet 
for a moment. Then an impression is 
taken of all four fingers at one time, 
of each hand. A forward rolling mo¬ 
tion is given the finger tip in making 
the print. 

Should our soldier or sailor boy 
ever meet with death in battle, and 
every other mark of identification be 
destroyed, a print of even one of his 
fingers would enable the department 
to complete his record, and mark his 
honored grave with his name, age, 
and company. 

The reading of a print is really a re¬ 
markable performance; in other words 


taking a finger print and identifying 
its owner. This is done by experts at 
headquarters. In filing, a division is 
first made of two general classes, loops 
and whorls. In the former are in¬ 
cluded the arches and in the latter the 
composites. Each of the ten prints 
will be there, either a loop or a whorl, 
designated L or W, respectively, and 
the ten digits, being taken in pairs, 
there will be four possible combina¬ 
tions of each pair, which are written 


LL 

L W 

W L 

WW 


The classification is then extended 
to its limit, and so perfect is the work 
that an expert can find and identify a 
print by its owner’s name in a section 
containing 100,000 cards, in five or 
six minutes. 

Major Kean says: “This system will 
be very valuable in obviating the ne¬ 
cessity of much correspondence and 
collection of evidence at present re¬ 
quired to prove identity in cases com¬ 
ing before the War Department and 
the Pension Bureau. After the in¬ 
troduction of this system, any man 
who has had service in the Regular 
Army, can at once establish his iden¬ 
tity by placing his right forefinger on 
the ink pad of an ordinary rubber 
stamp and making a finger print below 
his name. Unknown dead, or uncon¬ 
scious men, brought from the battle¬ 
fields into field hospitals, or who die 
there, can in this way give a record 
which will lead to their identification ; 
and a copy of the finger print buried 
in a vial with the body will be a per¬ 
manent identification of it.” 

-♦ ♦ 4- 

Don t try to use an incandescent 
light too long, as it grows old you are 
using just as much current and get¬ 
ting less light all the time; 800 hours 
is usually long enough. 

-4 ♦ 4- 

A telephone line has been built to 
the summit of Mount Graylock, the 
highest mountain in Massachusetts. 
Where the line makes a nearly verti¬ 
cal ascent for several hundred feet the 
wires are carried in an iron pipe. 






ENCYCLOPEDIA 


321 



From the time a block of stone weighing many tons is cut from the quarry until placed 
in position to ornament or support some great building, the work is practically all done 
by machinery. Two or three men with suitable hoisting apparatus handle these immense 
weights easily and safely. Pillars are turned in lathes, carborundum wheels driven by an 
electric motor taking the place of a steel knife; otherwise the process is quite similar to 
that of turning a table leg. 


BOAT POLO FOR LADIES 


Boat polo, which was introduced 
last summer in England, proved a 
great success, the game being full of 
excitement for both 
players and specta¬ 
tors. 

Specially built 
small boats are re¬ 
quired a n d the 
player is . allowed 
only one oar with 
which to guide the 
boat and plav the 
ball. As the boats 
are easily and fre- 
q u e n 11 y capsized 
much skill is re¬ 
quired, and the 
players must be good 
swimmers. The gen¬ 
eral rules of the 
game are the same 
as when played on 
land, but the play¬ 
ing is more interesting on account 
of the single oar. The frantic efforts 
to maintain the boat in position and 
strike the ball at the same time are 

extremely amusing. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

Mme. Curie, the first woman to oc¬ 
cupy a chair at the Sorbonne Uni¬ 
versity, Paris, has opened her lec¬ 
tures on radio-activity. 


DUPLEX WIRELESS SYSTEM 


A new system of wireless telegraphy 
which was recently invented by Vladi¬ 
mir Poulsen, of Copenhagen, is said 


to have solved the troublesome prob¬ 
lem of interference between stations 
while working simultaneously. In the 
new system a continuous flow of en- 
ergv to the receiving apparatus has 
replaced the intermittent sparks used 
in other systems, and it is claimed that 
any number of stations within 
range of each other can intercom¬ 
municate without mutual interference. 

































322 


# 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 



PORTABLE ARMY SEARCHLIGHT 


A powerful searchlight is the surest 
safeguard against a sudden night at¬ 
tack, and is now recognized as just 
as essential a part of an army out¬ 
fit as its tents. The latest portable 
motor searchlight equipment for the 
British army is the large machine 
shown, the wheel base being 12 ft. 
The generating outfit for the search¬ 
light is an independent motor of 35 
hp. The projector is 36 in. diameter; 
an extra lens being carried. 

-♦ - ♦ ♦- 

A NATION ON WHEELS 


The recent statement in these pages 
that there were in use today automo¬ 
biles and motor cars to the value of 


$200,000,000, occasioned considerable 
surprise—and some doubters. When 
one realizes, however, that there are 
more than 100,000 of these machines, 
and that $2,000 would be a low rather 
than high average price, the figures 
are found to agree. This number and 
amount are the accumulations of sev¬ 
eral years, and not the production of 
the past 12 months. 

In the line of vehicles drawn by an¬ 
imal power, including carriages, 
trucks, merchants’ wagons, drays, 
farm wagons, etc., the annual produc¬ 
tion numbers nearly 2,000,000 vehicles, 
which with an average life of, say five 
years, would give for the entire coun¬ 
try approximately 10,000,000 vehicles 
of one kind and another, and the ca¬ 
pacity of the combined assortment is 
sufficient to give every man, woman 
and child in the entire United States 
a ride at the same time. 

Evidently the motor car has some 
little distance to travel yet before the 
faithful horse and mule are entirely 
displaced. 


^ 

HOW GOLD LEAF IS MADE 


Why Gold-Beating Machines are Failures 


Strange as it may appear, the process of beating 
gold has not been changed during the thousands of 
years in which it has been practiced. While nearly 
every other art and industry has been greatly bene¬ 
fited by the application of mechanical devices, the 
gold-beater has been constantly pounding away and 
furnishing the world with his splendid product, ap¬ 
parently indifferent to the mechanical progress that 
has been made in other directions. 

The first operation in manufacturing gold leaf is 
the preparation of the metal. The gold is obtained 
originally in its pure state from the Philadelphia 
Mint and is then alloyed with carat each of silver 
and copper, thus leaving the gold 23 carat fine. The 
object of adding this alloy is to increase the strength 
of the gold, which is very soft in the pure state. 

The gold is melted in crucibles about 6 in. high 
which are placed in a small furnace where the metal 
melts at a yellow heat and is then poured into molds, 
in the form of bars about 10 in. by 1 in. by y 2 in. 



The Gold=Beater 


* 



















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


The bars of gold are then passed be¬ 
tween steel rollers and rolled into rib¬ 
bon several hundred feet long and 
about an inch wide, the rollers being 
brought closer together after each op¬ 
eration, until the metal is as thin as 
paper. It is then cut into small squares 
ready for the first beating. 

The first beating is done with a 16- 
lb. hammer. Two hundred pieces of 
sheet gold are placed between sheets 
of oiled paper, used exclusively for 
the purpose, the sheets being held to¬ 
gether by two parchment bands. This 
forms a package 3^ in. square and 
about in. thick, known as a “cutch.” 

The cutch is then 
placed on a marble 
anvil sunk 3 ft. in 
the ground and is 
there hammered 
with the 16-lb. ham¬ 
mer, thus causing 
the gold to flatten 
and spread out be¬ 
tween the sheets of 
oiled paper. When 
all the pieces have 
spread out evenly to 
the edges of the 
cutch they are taken 
out and each square 
is cut into four 
smaller squares. 

The 800 pieces 
thus formed are 
placed in a package 
of oiled papers 4^2 
in. square called a 
“shoder.” This is hammered with a 
12-lb. hammer until the gold is driven 
beyond all four edges, the gold ex¬ 
tending over the edges, known as 
“sfruf,” being scraped off with a knife 
and saved to be melted over again. 

The 800 large squares are then re¬ 
moved from between the oiled papers; 
placed, one at a time, on a leather 
cushion and cut into four smaller 
squares. The 3,200 leaves thus 
formed are placed in three packages 
of skins called “moles.” These skins, 
which will be described later, serve in 
the same way as the oiled papers in the 


328 

former operations, but are much 
smoother and present very little fric¬ 
tion to the spreading gold. The moles 
are beaten on the marble anvil in the 
same manner as the cutch and sho¬ 
der except that two hammers are 
used. The first beating is done with 
a 6-lb. hammer and is continued for 
two hours, after which the beating is 
continued with a 10-lb. hammer two 
hours longer. 

1 he gold-beater examines the work 
from time to time by slipping off the 
parchment bands and turning over the 
edges of the skins, thus showing 
where the gold is spreading the least 


and enabling him to determine where 
to strike the greatest number of blows. 

After the final beating the gold leaf 
is trimmed into 3^-in. squares which 
is the universal standard in all coun¬ 
tries and it is then packed in books 
ready for the market. 

Considerable time is required to 
learn all the branches of the gold¬ 
beater’s art and an apprentice is not 
considered proficient until he has had 
at least four or five years experience. 
A complete knowledge of the peculiar 
properties of the gold-beater’s skins 
is essential as the success of the 



GoId=Beater’s Tools 


S 












324 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


operation depends largely on their 
condition. These skins are obtained 
from the intestines of cattle, only one 
portion being suitable for the purpose, 
the size of which is barely sufficient 
to make one skin. Each mole or 
package of skins will therefore repre¬ 
sent over 1,000 head of cattle. 

Gold-beater's skins are now fur¬ 
nished exclusively by a London firm, 
who prepare them by a special proc¬ 
ess, which has been carefully guarded 
and kept a family secret for many gen¬ 
erations. In Chicago the fresh skins 
are obtained from the stockyards and 
are then sent to the English firm 
where they undergo the secret process 
after which they are shipped back. 

Before each beating the skins have 
to be carefully prepared by the gold¬ 
beater. They must be neither too hot 
nor too cold; must have just the right 
amount of moisture, and require more 
skill in their preparation than any 
other branch of the art. 

If properly used and cared for one 
package of skins will give constant 
service for about a year and a half, 
but if given a single foul blow, i. e., 
struck with the edge of the hammer, 
the whole pack will be ruined. Over¬ 
heating will also damage the skins 
and if carried too far will spoil them 
entirely. 

The adhesive properties of gold leaf 
render it fatal if swallowed in suffi¬ 
cient quantities, and the nobility of 
China frequently commit suicide in 
this way, the gold leaf often com¬ 
pletely covering the walls of the stom¬ 
ach and preventing nutrition. 

The extreme thinness of gold leaf, 
1/200,000 to 1/250,000 of an inch, 
makes it transparent to light, a siftgle 
leaf, held between the eye and the 
light, having the appearance of green 
glass or very fine green gauze. It is 
so transparent that a person would 
have no difficulty in recognizing a 
friend by looking through it towards 
the light, but let a beam of light strike 
the side of the gold leaf on which the 
observer stands and it suddenly ap¬ 
pears to be opaque. All objects ap¬ 


pear to have a green color when 
viewed through a piece of gold leaf 
the same as when a piece of green 
glass is held to the eye. 

In all industries where gold leaf is 
used care is taken to save all the 
scraps and waste, which are returned 
to the gold-beater to be remelted. 
Several bookbinders of this country 
realize in this way as much as $500 to 
$600 each month. The daily sweep¬ 
ings from gold-beating establishments 
are saved and sent to the smelter, as 
they are rich with gold. 

Several machines have been de¬ 
signed for beating gold but none of 
them have met with any practical suc¬ 
cess. In discussing the possibilities of 
beating gold by machinery, Mr. A. H. 
Williams, one of the most practical 
gold-beating experts in this country, 
savs: 

“The process of beating gold today 
is the same as it was in King Solo- 
man’s time. No improvement in the 
art has been made since then nor are 
there indications of anv for the fu- 

J 

ture. It must be remembered that 
gold-beating is an art and that the 
apparent indecision with which the 
skilled gold beater strikes his work, is 
in reality the result of many years’ 
experience. Thus it is that the true 
art hides itself and while to the ordi¬ 
nary observer the blows are simply 
given at random, the gold-beater must 
know just where to strike each blow 
in order to spread the gold success- 
fullv without pounding it full of holes. 

“If the beating is done too fast the 
skins become overheated and the 
work is ruined. For this reason a ma¬ 
chine even if successful would turn 
out no more work than a single op¬ 
erator and would therefore be more 
expensive than the present method. 

“I am of the opinion that the art of 
gold-beating has long past reached its 
final state of perfection. It would be 
a waste of time for any person to en¬ 
deavor to invent a mechanical process 
to do the work who had not first be¬ 
come experienced in the present 
method.” 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


325 


GIANT SHIPS INTHEIR “BATH” 

How the Colossal Floating Palaces are Taken out of the Water and Cleaned 


There is such keen competition today among the great ocean-going lines 
that no matter how luxurious a 20,000-ton monster may be when she is first 
launched, all the vast expenditure upon her will go for naught unless she is 
kept keyed to the highest pitch of efficient perfection. She must keep her times 
in New York harbor and Liverpool as regularly as though she were an express 
train; and that in spite of icebergs, fogs, uncharted rocks, derelicts, and other 
menaces to navigation. 

No sooner has she docked in Liverpool, and her immense population of 



20,000=Ton “Oceanic” in Liverpool Dry DocK 










326 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


* 



Bow View of “Adriatic”— 25,000 Tons-in Dry Dock 

perhaps 3,000 souls streamed down the gangplank, than the overhauling begins. 
Silver-plate and linen, with china, books, furniture and a thousand other neces¬ 
saries are checked and inventoried; and a whole army of decorators and stewards 
Jet loose among the nine decks that rise tier above tier to a height of 60 or 70 
ft. above the water The engineering staff, too, go over the mighty mechanism 
that may develop the strength of 70,000 horses, lest some rival liner do better 
than they and fastidious passengers transfer their patronage. But most curious 
ol all perhaps is the putting of the 20 , 000 -ton monster in her “bath”! This 

bath is in reality a dry-dock, which in order to receive the leviathans of todav 
conveniently must be fully 1,000 ft. long. J 

Just such a curious receptacle is the famous Canada dry-dock in Liverpool 
where all the most _ magnificent liners of today are overhauled. One can 
imagine no more delicate operation than landing a great liner on the elm and 
























ENCYCLOPEDIA 


327 


oak blocks at the bottom of this bath. While yet the monster is floating in deep 
water a plan of the bed arrangements is submitted to the chief officer, and very 
careful calculations are made so that the stupendous hull may rest evenly upon 
the blocks. I hen the flood gates are opened and the bath filled. When its 
level is the same as that of the outer water, the colossus is wheeled round and her 
n°" e P 011 ited in. fl hen tugs begin to haul in, and when once her towering bow 
is between the amphitheater-like walls, her speed is so slow that it takes a sharp 
eye to detect any movement at all. 

\ou understand that if she scraped her sides it would do great damage. 
No soonei is she fairly in, than a whole army of men get to work with brushes 
of steel wire on the ends of long poles; and when at length the stern and pro- 
pelleis aie inside, the outer gates of the bath are closed and enormous steam 
pumps get to vork throwing out millions of gallons. Gradually the mighty 
ship sinks, and as she goes lower and lower consultations are held as to how 
likely she is to settle on an even keel on the blocks prepared for her. Moreover 
long poles are stretched from the walls, so that when she comes to rest she may 
not heel over either way. The breaking of these poles would surely result 
in disaster, entailing scores of thousands of dollars to put right. 

Remember, the ship may be nearly 800 ft. long, and the dead weight in 
the case of the new Cunard liners “Lusitania” and “Mauretania” is 33,000 tons! 
At last every drop of water is removed from the bath, and scrapers, brushers 
and painters get to work on the towering steel flanks of the ship. She has 
settled on her bed within a fraction of an inch of the spot designed for her, 
and you will soon see busy men, perched like acrobats and looking like flies on 
a wall, on narrow planks high up on the hull, driving rivets, testing plates, 
painting or scraping. A ship like the “Mauretania,” by the way, contains over 
4 , 000,000 rivets, and the largest of them are 8 in. long and weigh nearly 3 lb. 
The removal of weeds, barnacles and other marine growths from the hull of 
one of these magnificent liners means a material increase of her speed. 

At last the floodgates are opened once more, and gradually the monster 
lifts off the blocks, and is hauled out again with as much care as she was 
hauled in. A whole fleet of tugs are fussing about her; her head is swung 
round, and, all spick and span both within and without, she is ready to receive 
her thousands of passengers and poke her nose out once more into the stormy 
Atlantic for another journey of 3,000 miles. 



Royal Train Used by the King between London and Epsom Race Course 











328 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


MOTOR BOAT WHISTLE 


A new whistle for motorboats is 

blower driven by 
a friction con¬ 
tact with the 
flywheel of the 
engine. The 
whistle can be 
maintained as 
long as desired 
and the sound is 
u n i f o r m and 
steady. The 
blower, of course, 
must be at the engine, but by use of 
piping, the whistle can be placed any¬ 
where in the boat and a whistle cord 

run to the steering wheel. 

-♦ ♦ ♦ —- 

piping water across the 

MOUNTAINS IN HUGE WOOD= 
EN PIPES 


In California there are many great 
irrigation, mining and water-power en¬ 
terprises, and as more than four-fifths 
of the state is mountainous, water in 
not a few cases has to be taken over 
high rocky ridges and across deep ra¬ 
vines and canyons. In order to conduct 
water ever such a rough country huge 
wooden pipes, more than 6 ft. in diam¬ 
eter, are used. 

These pipes are made of redwood 
staves banded bv iron rods that may 
be tightened by screws and the pipes 
thus made watertight. California red¬ 
wood is found to be an excellent ma¬ 
terial for making water pipes, for the 
reason that a large proportion of lum¬ 
ber from that tree is “clear stuff,” free 
from knots, pitch and pitch seams, and 
the wood being very free from sap is 
enabled to resist decay to a remark¬ 
able degree. 

The wood stave pipe is found far 
preferable to iron or steel pipe for con¬ 
struction in mountainous regions, for 
the reason of its light weight, and that 
the material mav be transported to the 
site of operations in pieces. It is not 
infrequently the case that it is found 
impossible to transport even ibis light 
material upon wagons, so rugged is the 



Pipe is 6 Ft. Diameter 


country, and in cases of this kind the 
wood staves are lashed to the backs of 
burros and thus taken into the steep 
places. Our illustration shows a sec¬ 
tion of this huge pipe descending a 
steep mountain side and crossing thq 
gulch at the bottom, 


sounded by a rotary 





































ENCYCLOPEDIA 


329 



GIRLS’ FIRST RACING SCULLING 

EIGHT 


I)r. Furnivall, the eminent Shakes¬ 
pearean scholar, claims his crew of girls 
is the first racing sculling eight to be 
pulled by women, and that the Ameri¬ 
can girls’ eight is a rowing, not a scull¬ 
ing eight. The illustration shows his 
crew of fair oarswomen in full swing in 

their racing scull on the Thames river. 

- ♦ ♦ ♦ - 

MACHINE TO TYPEWRITE 1,000 
WORDS A MINUTE 


Remarkable claims are made by the 
inventor for a new automatic typewriter 
which is to he placed on exhibition. If 
its construction is such as not to require 
an engineer, electrician and a crew of 
machinists in constant attendance, and 
it will do one-half it promises, it will 
revolutionize correspondence in large 
establishments. The inventor says: 

“This machine will actually write let¬ 
ters at the rate of 1,000 words a minute. 
The machine may be operated in two 
ways. If it is desired to make a num¬ 
ber of copies of the same letter with 


different names and addresses it will 
perform this work, producing in each 
case an original letter in one, two or 
three coloi’s, fill in the name and ad¬ 
dress and add the signature. A busi¬ 
ness man desiring to dictate may use 
this automatic typewriter by talking his 
letters into a device like the phono¬ 
graph, transfer the record to the ma¬ 
chine, turn on the electric current and 
go home. The next morning the let¬ 
ters will all be done and the machine 
will automatically stop when all the let¬ 
ters are written. It will also address 
envelopes or wrappers and count them 
as well. It will write forwards or back¬ 
wards, and, if desired, the lines may be 
justified like type. 

-♦ » - ♦- 

CAR DITCHED; TRUCK WENT ON 


The motorman on an interurban line 
near Grand Haven, Mich., forgot to 
shut off the current as his car ap¬ 
proached a curve at high speed. The 
result was the car body was thrown 
completely off the trucks which re¬ 
mained on the track and ran 1,500 ft. 
before coming to a stop. 



Peculiar vehicle specially constructed for 
the transportation of giraffes. The top of the 
wagon is about 20 ft. above the pavement. 















330 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 




AN ELECTRIC CONVEYER FOR SHIPS 


Courtesy Spence Mfg. Co. 

Loads 5,000 Packages an Hour 


TEACH SWIMMING ON DRY LAND 


By means of a new invention school 
children in Germany are being taught 
how to swim before they enter the wa¬ 
ter. The apparatus consists of a broad 
sling placed under the chest and a nar¬ 
row band for each ankle, allowing free 
movement of the arms and legs. The 
leg slings are balanced on weights and 
pulleys to allow a compensating motion. 


Electricity plays a n 
important part in the 
loading and unloading 
of modern vessels. It is 
claimed that the convey¬ 
er shown in the illustra¬ 
tion will save $50 to $65 
per day, doing the work 
formerly done by hand. 

It is electrically driven 
and has an endless wood¬ 
en apron which runs on 
steel rollers. It operates 
at any angle, is from 25 
to 50 ft. in length and 
can be transported to any 
place. There is an auto¬ 
matic registering device 
which accounts for every 
package, no matter how 
small, that passes over it. 
The conveyer will trans- 
port and register from 
3,000 t o 5,000 sacks, 
cases, barrels, bundles of 
shingles or bales per hour, 
according to size and weight. The il¬ 
lustration shows a 50-ft. machine 
loading the steamship “Minnesota” at 
Seattle. 


MINING KAOLIN WITH WATER 

JET 


German Swimming School 


A company mining kaolin in Connec¬ 
ticut successfully uses a water jet in¬ 
stead of a shaft. A 4-in. pipe is put 
down to the bottom of the kaolin bed, 
about 200 ft. Inside this pipe a 2-in. 
pipe is let down with a nozzle at the 
lower end, through which water is 
forced at a pressure of 60 lb. About 
100 gal. of water and kaolin per minute 
come to the surface, 10% being solid 
matter, of which 75% is kaolin. The 
discharge is then pumped 4 miles 
through pipe line to washing plant. 
-♦ — ♦- 

A railroad brakeman has invented a 
hot-box alarm, in which the melting of 
a fuse rings a bell in the coach. 


















ENCYCLOPEDIA 


331 



An exhibition of Japanese daylight fireworks in which thousands of subjects, made of 
colored paper, are fired into the air. Animals, fish, balloons, furniture, umbrellas, and 
countless other objects are sent up several hundred feet and float slowly down, unfolding as 
they descend. 


IN THE STOKE HOLD 


What is doubtless the fiercest work 
performed by man is firing the furnaces 
of the great ocean liners, which consume 
several hundred tons a day. The men 
are obliged to work incessantly in a 
temperature which few people can en¬ 
dure longer than a few minutes. Al¬ 
though they work in short shifts it is so 
exhausting that the men are short lived, 
and new stokers have to be secured con¬ 
stantly to take the place of those who 
have become broken-down wrecks. 


PECULIAR WRECK OF BUILDING 

A three-story frame tenement whose 
height had been increased by raising on 
jack screws preparatory to moving, was 
blown down in Chicago. 




A midnight gale blowing nearly 50 
miles an hour overturned the building; 
five persons were killed and 16 badly 
injured. The collapse of the structure 
was almost complete as seen in the 
illustration. 

- ♦♦♦- 

A pile driver at New Orleans is 108 
ft. high; supposed to be the highest ever 
built. 


Man°Kllling Work 



















332 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


MINER’S LIFE-SAVING HELMET 


Several types of life-saving helmets 
are already in use by miners and fire¬ 
men and in refrigerating plants. The 


Working in Deadly Cases 

latest device is a German invention, in 
which the air supply comes from two 
oxygen cylinders strapped on the back. 

A special diving helmet is also made 
for submarines. It can be put on in 
one minute and will sustain life while 
the wearer dives from the boat and 

makes his way to the surface. 

-♦ ♦ ♦ —- 

SEE=SAW TARGET FOR BIG GUNS 


One of the most unique targets ever 
devised is in use at the greatest school 
of naval gunnery in the world—Whale 
Island, Portsmouth, Eng. Here the 
seamen and coast defense gunners are 
educated. 



A Target Hard to Hit 


The target consists of two dummy 
warships nscillating on an immense 
steel beam. This imitates the pitching 
of a vessel in a heavy sea. At the same 
time the car on which the target is car¬ 
ried moves back and forth, giving mo¬ 
tion in two directions at the same mo¬ 
ment. At this elusive target the gun¬ 
ners fire. 

-» ♦ ♦- 

ELECTRIC TABLE FOUNTAIN 


The latest ornament for a banquet 
table is the electric fountain which 
throws dainty streams of perfumed 
water, through which glimmer the soft 
rays of colored lights. 

J O 



Clectt ic Table Fountain 

The fountain can be moved about 
like a table lamp, and takes current 
through a flexible wire cord. A small 
electric motor drives a centrifugal 

pump to keep the fountain playing. 

-♦ — » ♦- 

A Hew York steeplejack, after years 
of perilous adventures on the tallest 
spires and stacks in the city, fell 4 ft, 
and died from the injury. 






















E N C Y CL 0 P E D1 A 


BUILDING A RAILROAD IN SAVAGE AFRICA 


Giraffes and Elephants Pull Down the Telegraph Wires—Hostile Savages Pull Up 

the I racks to Make Spears 


By W. G. Fitzgerald 


Slowly, but surely, the Dark Conti¬ 
nent is being conquered for civilization, 
and the most potent factor in this is 
certainly the railroad. Already from 
Cape Town, in the south, as far north 
as Lake Tanganyika, 2,000 miles, the 
Cape to Cairo line has won its way 
and in East Africa, the Uganda Rail¬ 
road has fought with wild beasts, hos- 


gether by gorgeous orchids and other 
floral parasites. The only “roads” are 
the beaten tracks which the herds of 
elephant have made as they crashed 
through the jungle on their way to 
water. Then, too, it must be remem¬ 
bered, how dangerous a country this is 
for the white man, owing to the deadly 
fevers so easily contracted, not to men- 



\ 


Natives Making an Embankment through Ashanti Jungle 


tile tribes, fever and pestilence, until 
today its shining tracks stop short on 
the shores of the great Victoria Ny- 
anza, that vast inland sea of Central 
Africa. Even in the cannibal Congo 
the Belgians are pushing railroad con¬ 
struction, and the Portuguese on the 
Indian Ocean, the Germans in West 
Africa and the French on the Ivory 
Coast are all laying down tracks and 
winning a way into a wilderness hith¬ 
erto given up to lion and rhino, ele¬ 
phant and giraffe. 

Now consider for a moment what 
such an undertaking means. The 
country is primeval jungle with trees 
whose upper branches are knitted to- 


tion sudden descents of hostile sav¬ 
ages, and attacks from wild beasts, and 
poisonous snakes. Worse still, there 
is the question of labor. As every ex¬ 
plorer knows, the African native hardly 
does a stroke of work from childhood to 
the grave. A living is to be had by 
merely scratching the ground, or bring¬ 
ing down antelope with the bow and ar¬ 
row ; and all the necessarv labor is done 
by the women. And when a railroad 
company does succeed in getting a few 
thousand native laborers, there is sure 
to be an outbreak of that most mys¬ 
terious of all diseases known as “sleep¬ 
ing sickness” which last year swept 
away 200,000 natives on the Congo 






ENCYCLOPEDIA 


334 

alone. Animal transport, chiefly mules 
and oxen, was to be had at one time, 
but all these four-legged helpers are 
now impossible by reason of the dreaded 
tsetse fly, which has actually compelled 
the Belgian officials to introduce, on a 
large scale, zebras, as beasts of burden 
which might possibly be proof against 
the poison of this insect. 

Thus, it will be seen that the con¬ 
struction of a railroad in savage Af¬ 
rica is indeed a heroic undertaking. In 
the first place gangs of savage laborers 
go ahead and clear the 
jungle of trees and 
brush. Behind conies 
another party digging 
holes for the telegraph 
posts, and last of all 
come the tracklayers. 

Now the surveying 
pioneers who map out 
the course have all the 
difficulties and dan¬ 
gers of the explorer 
in an unknown land 
to contend with. Had 
I space I could tell 
thrilling lion stories 
more exciting t h a n 
any fiction, of camps 
attacked in the night 
by howling savages; 
of mysterious disap¬ 
pearances of w h i t e 
men. But these are 
the ordinary inci¬ 
dentals of an African 
pioneer railroad. On 
the Uganda line all 
operations were stop¬ 
ped for two months at 
Tsavo station, owing 
to the depredations of a man-eating 
lion and lioness which had so terrorized 
the native workers that at length they 
dropped their tools and disappeared in 
the wilderness. There was nothing for it 
but to track and kill the lions—a highly 
risky and difficult work, for both were 
old and crafty. Like all man-eaters 
their fangs had become so worn and 
their joints stiff with age that they 
could no longer chase the swift antelope 


which is their ordinary prey. And un¬ 
der such conditions is it that the larger 
carnivora seek human beings as being 
much easier to secure. The strange 
thing is, that once having tasted human 
flesh, a lion rarely cares for any other 
prey. Three or four surveyors and en¬ 
gineers of the Uganda railroad were 
specially sent from Mombasa to Tsavo, 
where they took up their quarters every 
night in the old pay coach which ran 
up and down the line once a month 
distributing pieces of cotton cloth, 


cowrie shells, and brass wire—the cur¬ 
rency of Central Africa. 

For many days and nights the lion 
and his mate continued to carry off 
employes of the road, avoiding the 
white watchers with almost human cun¬ 
ning. Indeed they appeared to grow 
more and more daring, and the climax 
came one evening when a Hindu pay¬ 
master was picked off an open freight 
car by the lioness, who made a sudden 




ENCYCLO P,E D X A 


335 


swoop from the grass thicket and 
dragged him off shrieking into the 
jungle. That same night was marked 
by a still more terrible tragedy. One 
of the white engineers towards two in 
the morning dropped off to sleep in the 


tered in the Arab slave raiders who 
make periodical descent upon Central 
African villages in order to supply the 
slave markets of Egypt, Persia and 
Turkey. Sometimes hundreds of the 
laborers would be kidnaped and their 



Material is Hauled by Long Horned Oxen 


coach with his express rifle across his 
knees. There was a sudden scuffle, and 
before his comrades knew what had 
happened the maned head and massive 
paws of the male lion were thrust in 
at the open window, and the sleeping 
man dragged out and carried off into 
the forest. His pitiful remains were 
found some weeks later, ft is satis¬ 
factory to learn that both lion and lion¬ 
ess were eventually bagged, but even 
after their magnificent skins were ex¬ 
hibited all up and down the line it was 
very difficult to induce the laborers to 
return to work. 

And even when the railroad was 
opened for traffic, the patroling of it 
was a most difficult undertaking. On 
no less than five occasions giraffes 15 
and 20 ft. high were found dead by 
the way, having been strangled by the 
telegraph wires which they had run 
against blindly and dragged down with 
their long necks. Then, too, some of 
the blood-thirsty Masai regarded the 
shining steel tracks as heaven-sent ma¬ 
terial for their own weapons, so that 
it was no uncommon incident to find 
great gaps in the track where the sav¬ 
ages had stolen the metal to be forged 
into spears and arrow-heads in their 
rude village smithies. 

Another great difficulty was encoun- 


villages burned with circumstances of 
great atrocity. Accordingly the white 
authorities had to maintain little stand¬ 
ing armies whose forces could be en¬ 
trained at any given spot on receiving 
news by telegraph, and swiftly trans¬ 
ported to the scene of a raid. On such 
occasions serious pitched battles would 
be fought, but victory always lay with 
the railroad people, who were better 
armed and had the strategic advantages 
of their rolling stock. Yet another dif¬ 
ficulty was experienced from the herds 
of wild elephants. Many of these brutes 
appeared to think that the telegraph 
poles were put there specially so that 
they might rub themselves against 
them. Or an angry tusker whose up¬ 
raised trunk had been hurt by the wire 
would think little of uprooting the 
poles for miles or more. It is surely an 
amazing monument to the pluck and 
persistence of the white man in Africa 
that nven in the face of all these diffi¬ 
culties railroad work is being pushed 
with feverish zeal in all parts of the 
continent from Uganda to the Senegal, 
and from the Zambesi to the sources 
of the Nile. 

Rich mineral and agricultural lands 
are being opened up and capital intro¬ 
duced from all nations. Cotton, tobac¬ 
co and wheat are being grown on the 





.336 


ENCYCLOPEDIA 


highlands of British Central Africa, 
and luxurious trains are now crossing 
the stupendous falls of the Zambesi at 
a point where one of the world’s might¬ 
iest rivers two miles wide falls over 
an appalling precipice 400 ft. deep. 
Long ago the various nations inter¬ 
ested in the development of Africa, 
realized that the best way to conquer 
all the forces arrayed against them 
there was to clear a way into the heart 
of the continent for the iron horse, 
which is fast carrying prosperity and 
the blessings of civilization into regions 
where but a year or two ago a white 
face had never been seen. 

--» ♦ ♦- 

IRON IN CUBA 


After boring several thousand holes 
and making other explorations covering 
a period of two years, it is announced 
that there is quantities of iron in Cuba. 
The body of ore already located is esti¬ 
mated at 600,000,000 tons, and only 13 
miles from a good harbor. Steel inter¬ 
ests in this country have already secured 
27,000 acres. 



The above is an advertisement of railroad 
supplies appearing in a Tokyo, Japan, rail¬ 
road journal. 


MOTORCYCLE MAKES RATE OF 
90 MILES PER HOUR 


At Atlantic City William II. Bray, 
jr., made an official mile from a flying 
start in 38 seconds, or at the rate of 90 
miles per hour. The machine is of 



W. H. Bray, Jr. 


French construction and is a two-cylin¬ 
der 14-hp. and broke the world’s record 
last year at 61 miles per hour. 

-+ ♦ 4 - 

ILLUMINATING GAS FROM 
CORN=COBS 


The town of Beatrice, Neb., has the 
only gas plant in the world that manu¬ 
factures commercial illuminating gas 
from corn-stalks, corn-cobs, hay, and 
vegetable matter. The quality is as 
good as coal gas and it sells for $1.18 
per thousand cubic feet, the lowest 
price in any city in Nebraska. The 
plant cost $100,000 and John D. 
.Rockefeller is thought to be back of 
it, as the franchise is held by the Bev. 
Charles Eaton, pastor of Rockefeller’s 
church in Cleveland. There are a 
number of manufacturing plants which 
make a cheap grade of gas out of bark 
and hay for use in gas engines, but it 
is believed that this is the first instance 
where vegetable matter has been util¬ 
ized for the manufacture of illuminat¬ 
ing gas. 

-♦ ♦ ♦- 

During 1906 in the state of Pennsyl¬ 
vania, 126 boys between the ages of 16 
and 21 years were killed in the coal 
mining regions. 






























































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